Long after football fever has died away for the year and hockey and basketball have taken the spotlight, a hardy but little-known group of Crimson athletes will still be working at their chilly specialty.

Harvard sailing teams pay little attention to the fact that racing is usually considered a seasonal sport, and, although blustery October breezes have long since shut down such yachting meccas as Marblehead and Larchmont, the local sailors are less than half way through their schedule.

Already the Crimson sailors have five regattas behind them, and each weekend has seen them climb higher in relative standings. They started out on October 3 with a quadrangular meet against Coast Guard, M.I.T., and Yale, but could not manage to place better than last, although they tried their luck in Stars, International 14's, and 12-ft dinghies.

The following week they came up fifth out of 12 in the ICYRA Danmark Trophy sail-offs at New London, but still trailed Coast Guard, Yale, and M.I.T., who appear to be the toughest competitors in the East. This has been the pattern in two succeeding races also, the Crimson finishing close behind the M.I.T. in the greater Boston dinghy and the ICYRA Pentagonal Regatta.

In the meantime, Olympic world champion Hilary Smart could do no better than fourth out of seven in his Star Class specialty on the tricky waters of the Thames River last week. But at the same time, a Freshman team of Johnny Bishop and Ed White won in its first dinghy outing, defeating B.C., B.U., and Northeastern.

The Varsity team still has four more regattas definitely planned, with two additional ones possible at Northwestern and on the Potomac if they qualify. First the sailors must meet B.U., Brown, and Tufts on the 31st of this month, and, if they qualify, face a dozen other colleges in the Schell Trophy race on the Charles the following week. After that they would travel to Princeton for a dual meet and later to Navy for the Middle Atlantic Championship.

Commodore Pete Putnam still leads this energetic band, which probably covers as much ground in the course of a season as any major team in College. Other skippers include George Whitney, Charlie McElroy, who ranks second to Putnam as high scorer, Dick Braisted, Randy Foster, and Jim Roosevelt.

All these skippers share the racing load equally, since most races are run on a round-robin system where skippers from each college rotate assignments and boats.