Computer Fouls 'Head' Times

Anybody who watched the Head of the Charles Regatta yesterday probably already knows that the day wasn't sunny and warm and that 99,000 other people did not line the banks of the Charles to watch the boats go by. But what no one knows--because of a few bugs in the computer timing system--are the results of the regatta, who the overall winner might be.

The announcers on the radio cooed all day about the "autumnal weather" while rowing fans on the banks of the Charles watched the skies cloud and waited for the rain to fall. By all accounts, however, the rowers seemed to enjoy their races. And that's what really matters.

Regatta officials didn't say what the bugs in the computer system were, mentioning only that it would be at least 24 hours before anyone knew who had accumulated the greatest number of points toward the Paul Revere Trophy, the award given to the boat club whose crews do the best in the greatest number of events.

The day's weather went from cool, but sunny, in the morning, to cloudly and positively cold in the afternoon. To make matters worse, rain threatened all day. But the rain held off until after the finish of the men's championship eights, the final event of the day.

The U.S. Naval Academy's eight bullied its way through the field to 40 in the championship eights to win the race with an unofficial time of 14:36.5. The Charles River Rowing Association's eight (what would have been the 1980 Olympic entry) came in second with an unofficial 14:53.9. Harvard's eight finished fifth in 15:22.1.

The Cambridge Boat Club, where the results of the individual races were posted for all to see, had lapsed into a state of mild chaos by the time the day's races were over. Team representatives frenetically tried to find out how their boats had fared, and regatta officials met to consider protests entered by the crews and assess penalties to crews and scullers for buoy violations. The scorers added ten seconds for each buoy beyond which the boat might stray, and then corrected the standings in each category accordingly.

And so, even the times postaged at the Cambridge Boat Club were not official results. But no one was confused. At least not as confused as the crew of the power cruiser that found itself in the middle of the racing lane during the youth fours race in the morning.

How the motor boat made its way up the Charles, its skipper oblivious to the racing shells around it, is a moot point. But after being called every foul name imaginable by fans and the rowers returning to their docks from the finish of the lightweight eight race (which St. Catharine's Rowing Club of Canada won with an unofficial time of 15:23.1), the skipper of the pleasure boat threw a line to a passing kayaker, who then towed the boat out of the racing lane.

In the lightweight eights, the London Rowing Club of Canada finished second with an unofficial time of 15:38.9. Princeton, which was disqualified in last year's contest, finished third this year, five and a half seconds behind London Rowing Club.

Harvard's talented lightweight eight finished eighth in 16:04.7 (unofficial) followed by the Charles River Rowing Association in 13th place, and the Alte Achter Rowing Club in 24th.

In the men's championship singles, former Harvard oarsman Tiff Wood '75 nipped former Yale oarsman John Bigelow. Wood, seeded first, finished with an unofficial time of 18:15.1; Bigelow, seeded 12th, finished unofficially at 18:17.2.

A knot of rowers finished with their races for the day sat on the shore by Weeks Bridge, watching and cheering for their favorites as boats in other races slipped past.

They cheered the 1980 Rowing Club's mixed eight--with crew members Bruce Beall (coach of the Harvard men's lightweights) and Carie Graves (coach of the Radcliffe heavyweights)--on the victory.

And they booed and hissed each and every Princeton and Yale crew.