Sailors Are Off Course in Weekend Regattas

The Harvard and Radcliffe sailing teams demonstrated this weekend that they are still far off last semester's championship course, as they sailed home with two second-place and one sixth-place finish in the Ivy League Championships, the Harry Reid Trophy regatta, and the Jan T. Friis regatta.

Jim Hammett and co-captain Dave Poor skippered the Crimson effort at the Ivy Leagues on the Schuykill River at the University of Pennsylvania. Harold Clark and Lora Fleming were crew.

It looked like Harvard had found its finesse as Hammett and Poor led after the first six races in the A and B divisions.

But the seventh and final race of the regatta knocked the wind out of the Crimson sails. Poor and Fleming were over early at the start and finished a disappointing sixth. Hammett and Clark finished fourth.

"Even though it was light, we were sailing well all day," Poor said yesterday.

"You just never go over early," he added.

Captain Pam Mack and Sarah Herrick took the helm for the 'Cliffe sailors this weekend as MIT hosted the Harry Reid Trophy regatta on the Charles.

The yachtswomen navigated past some unusual obstacles on their way to a second-place finish in the regatta. Saturday's first race was interrupted by the Radcliffe and Wellesley lightweight crews, and Sunday brought hailstones and 40-degree temperatures. "We really had a mess on the river," Mack said yesterday.

Coach Mike Horn was particularly pleased with Herrick's performance. "Sarah was really superb on Saturday. She sailed very well in light and shifty airs," Horn said yesterday.

The second-place finish qualifies Radcliffe for the women's national collegiate sailing championships, to be held on the Charles in June.

Upper Mystic Lake continued to mystify the Harvard sailors as Tony Leggett and co-captain Tom Repps skippered the Crimson to a sixth-place finish at the Jan T. Friis Trophy regatta on Saturday.

Tufts, sailing on its home course, won the regatta with a low score of 61 points, less than half of Harvard's 132.

"You can't tell what's going to happen on the lake," Horn said. "Tufts just isn't a very friendly place to sail for visiting teams."