Fluky Winds Hamper Sailors In Patriot's Weekend Regattas

Racing under conditions that were more like Long Island Sound in August than New England in April, the Harvard-Radcliffe sailing teams managed only to drift to a second, third and two last-place finishes last weekend.

No Wind

The light, fluky, often non-existent winds that accompanied the recent heat wave had the Crimson sailors at their mercy.

"We should do better, but we're not really a light-air team," coach Mike Horn said yesterday. "I can't get all that upset about the results, given the conditions," he said.

The "high point" of the weekend for the team came Saturday in New London. Sailing out of Coast Guard during one of two eliminations for the New England Championships, the Harvard varsity picked up a second to winner MIT.

Tom Repps in the "A" division and Tony Leggett in "B" division wound up only a point behind the Engineers. The top five teams, along with the top five in the eliminations on the Charles (won by Tufts, followed by Dartmouth and URI) qualify for the championships.

In a strictly individual effort on Sunday at Tufts, Repps won his heat in the eliminations for the singlehanded championships. Teammate Jim Hamitt finished second in Medford while Leggett, Dave Poor and Russell Long fared poorly in their singlehanded heats at MIT.

The light air and Repps' illness took their toll on the Harvard team on Patriots Day, as the Crimson sailors finished dead last in the Greater Boston Championships (GBC) on the Charles. While Long and Terry Neff shared skippering duries in the "B" division and managed to finish second by a point, Leggett in "A" division and Poor in "C" division both finished last. Tufts won the trophy, followed by MIT, Northeastern and B.U.

Freshmen Do Better

The skippering tandem of Andy Efstathiou and Laura Brown did better in the freshman version of the GBCs at Tufts. Both skippers finished last in their first races in each division, but turned around to win their second races, finishing third overall. Harvard wound up three points behind second place MIT. Tufts was the winner again.

The Radcliffe sailors would rather look ahead to this weekend's eliminations for the national championships than be reminded of last weekend. After Saturday's Regis Cup regatta at Wellesley was cancelled due to lack of wind, the 'Cliffe team went back to Wellesley Sunday, only to finish last in the Presidents Trophy Regatta.