Yacht Club Whips Coast Guard To Win Fifth Trophy of Season

The Harvard Yacht Club dit it again. By outsailing the Coast Guard Academy to win the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for dinghy sailing, the Yacht Club won its fifth major championship of the fall season.

After three weekends of competition the Crimson sailors finally completed their defense of the New England Team Racing Championship, and avenged a loss to the Coast Guard earlier this season in the Schell Regatta.

By One-Fourth of a Point

Sailing on the Thames River in New London, Conn., the Crimson foursome edged the Academy by identical scores of 301/4-30 in the first two of the best four out of seven series. By the time the third race began, the wind had died down completely. The cadets were more adept at inching their crafts forward in the still air and therefore won that race, 351/4-25.

The loss in the third race was the only one Harvard suffered in the whole championship. The wind was more to the Crimson's liking on Sunday, and Harvard sailed away from the cadets to win 32-281/4.

Caution to the Winds

With their backs against the wall, the desperate Coast Guard threw caution to the winds in the last race, but could not quite outscore Harvard. The academy had boats in first, second, and third places during the first leg of the race. Coming around the weather mark, however, the four Crimson dinghies moved into second through sixth positions. The race and the championship were clinched when one of the Cadet dinghies was disqualified for a rule infraction.

Crimson skippers Carter Ford, Mike Lehmann, Dave Stookey, and Mike Horn had reached the finals by compiling a 6-0 record in the preliminary races and sweeping past Boston University in the semi-finals.

Lehmann Stars

Lehmann was consistently the Crimson's top performer. Moving the dinghies more skillfully than any other Harvard skipper, he often used his greater hull speed to pull the Crimson out of losing positions.

Acting as crew for Harvard were Desmon Fitzgerald, Dave Gants, John Archibald, and Herb Motley.

The Yacht Club has captured every major championship it has competed for this fall. Other titles won by the sailors are: the New England Sloop Championship, the Greater Boston Championship, and the Ivy League and the Big Three trophies.