19th Regatta Will Draw 3500 Rowers, 100,000 Spectators

The 19th annual Head of the Charles Regatta has something for everyone.

For 100,000-plus spectators expected to line the Charles River on Sunday to watch the races, it is one of the highlights of autumn. For amateur club rowers it is the end of their season, one last chance to race before the winter. For the Harvard and Radcliffe crews it is a race that fits in at a very early stage of their training regimen. For other intercollegiate crews, who often have been training longer, it may be their only chance of the year to challenge the Crimson. For old crew teams the race is a reunion of sorts, a chance to catch up and once again race as a team. For the oldtimers who race in the veterans divisions, it is a chance to see just how old they have grown.

The world's biggest one-day regatta is organized by the Cambridge Boat Club--it takes a full year's work--and will have 3400-3500 rowers competing in 700 boats. The racing begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs until the conclusion of the last event, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. The course starts at the Boston University boathouse and runs three miles upstream past Harvard to the WBZ tower. Jerry Olrich, a long-time race veteran, recommends the Weeks Bridge for optimum viewing as it is the approximate half-way point in the race.

Entering the race is very difficult. Applications for spots way outnumber the available positions, and after the top finishers from last year are admitted a lottery is held to determine which other boats are allowed to compete. "Every year people take it more and more seriously," says Radcliffe Coach Lisa Hansen Stone. "It is such a good time of year and the regatta is so well-organized that it is very hard to get into."

Hansen, the women's open single scull champion in 1977, is racing in singles this year, as is the men's lightweight coach, Bruce Beall. "We de-emphasize the race because we start later than other schools." Beall says, referring to the Harvard crews. "We haven't done enough conditioning yet. The Head is a funny race. It emphasizes the coxswain's role because of all the cornering and passing. Conditions are not equal for all teams in that sense; sometimes you get caught behind a slow boat that won't pull over. A lot of fun, but just sort of a crazy race."

For, unlike standard sprint racing, the Head does not send boats out in competition head-to-head (side-to-side, actually). Since the river is so narrow and several bridges obstruct the route, the boats start one after another at 10 to 15 second intervals. The results are determined by the clock, not by the order of finish. The boats are seeded, however, and spectators can determine the progress of the race by the relative positions of differently numbered boats. If, for example, boat number six is in second position as it passes Weeks Bridge then that crew has moved up since the start.

Various House boats will be entering, but each will be filled by regular varsity rowers. The coaches use the United States Rowing Association affiliations of the Houses to try to get additional entries in the race. In fact, the all-Crimson crew that went to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City is expected to race as Dunster House.

Another former Olympic racing team, the '72 silver-medalist eight, will also be competing in its eleventh consecutive Head. The team has vowed to keep coming back until they finish last. They will race as the Alte Achter (German for "old eight") Boat Club. Olrich suggests that they return each year, "for love more than anything else."

Foreign entries are down this year, probably because most teams, looking ahead to the Olympics, are conserving their resources. Kingston College at Oxford has an entry in the championship fours and Charles Luckman from Perth. Australia, home of the America's Cup, is competing in the lightweight singles. Each year as a reward for the season, Canada sends its national team to the Head and its boats should be contending throughout the day.

There will be Harvard and Radcliffe boats in almost every division and various other members of the community will be competing. Professor Raymond Vernon of the Kennedy School plans to compete as a veteran single sculler. Many alumni will be participating as members of the Charles River Rowing Association and various other private rowing clubs.

For now most of the participants are uniting in a time-honored Head tradition praying for good weather. Regatta Schedule No. Event  Points  Time 1. Men's Veteran Singles  (50)  9:30 a.m. 2. Men's Lightweight Eights  (95)  10 a.m. 3. Youth Fours  (70)  10:20 a.m. 4. Lightweight Singles  (55)  10:45 a.m. 5. Youth Eights  (90)  11:10 a.m. 6. Men's Master Singles  (50)  11:30 a.m. 7. Lightweight Fours  (75)  11:55 a.m. 8. Club Singles  (50)  12:15 a.m. 9. Men's Club Eights  (90)  12:45 a.m. 10. Senior Men's Singles  (50)  1:05 p.m. 11. Women's Club and Ltwt. Eights  (90)  1:30 p.m. 12. Championship Doubles  (65)  1:50 p.m. 13. Women's Singles  (60)  2:10 p.m. 14. Men's Championship Fours  (80)  2:35 p.m. 15. Women's Championship Eights  (100)  2:55 p.m. 16. Men's Championship Singles  (60)  3:15 p.m. 17. Women's Championship Fours  (80)  3:35 p.m. 18. Men's Championship Eights  (100)  4 p.m.