"We have a fifty-fifty chance to win this year's national sailing championships," Commodore John Bishop comments on the Crimson yachtsmen's 51-52 season. Bishop adds that if all goes as he hopes, "It will be mainly due to the magnificent sailing of Charlie Hoppin."

Few other Crimson captains would be hold enough--or rash enough--to make a prediction of an All-American victory for their teams. But yachtsmen here have been ahead in intercollegiate racing since it began. For instance, last year they took second place to M.I.T. in the national championships. Once again, Hoppin made the master-stroke, winning his 'B' Division race.

The team this year has ten men in it. The number varies, since it is yacht club poiley to give as many of its better sailors as it can a chance to compete in events.

Heading the lineup is Bishop, who as Commodore is automatically team captain. After Bishop comes Tom Chinlund, the Vice-Commodore, then: Hoppin, Tim Brown, Phil Buckner, Tom Carroll, Butch Horner, Dean Howells, Jimmy Nathanson, John Newhall, and George Robertson.

So far this season, the team has won both the Fowie team-race trophy and the Schell trophy. These successes have made the yachtsmen the New England champions for this fall and given them a chance to compete this weekend for the Mid-Atlantic Championships at Annapolis.

The most important meets the National Championships, and the New England Championships, are held in the spring, along with the Macmillan and Owen trophies. In the Macmillan Cup, the sailors forsake their usual 12 foot dinghys, and compete in the 42 foot yawis of the Annapolis Naval Academy.

Greatest rival, and at the same time greatest friend of the Crimson yachtsmen, is Tech. As a friend, Tech provides them with all the boats and other facilities they use, free of charge. A Harvard sailor has only to check in his club membership card at the MIT pavilon, and the get his dinghy out.

The only rational reason behind the Tech generosity seems to be one of building up intercollegiate racing. As Harvard's chief rival, it produces each year either the best or the second best team in the country. The excellent M.I.T. facilities help this along, but biggest asset is the great reserve of trained sailors. The Tech club can beast nearly a thousand members, though not many of these join in the racing activities. The majority content themselves with leisurly sails on the Charles; choosing their weather, and often on weekends, a girl for crew.

For Crimson and Tech varsity men, this brand of sailing is a rarity. They have to sail in any weather, fair or foul. Once, last year, a meet was held in wind so strong that all boats but one capsized.

The Crimson varsity teams are selected each week by the Vice-Commodore, Chinlund. He makes his choice on the basis of informal reports from various officers of the day, as well as from a series of averages computed for each member. The Vice-Commodore is also expected to do most of the team's managing.

This is a sizable job, for the Crimson joins from twenty to twenty-five meets a year. Opponents come from as far away as Michigan and California, but most hail from the Eastern seaboard.

Even with the heavy program of racing, the yacht club still finds time for one or two off-the-record events. It is at present considering going to a mid-winter sailing carnival at Vassar. The only sailing there would be done vicariously in the form of movie-shows, however, and the rest of the meet will be given over to a picnic and a dance.

Another annual bi-sexual event consists of a team-race with Radcliffe. In this, the losers literally lose their shirts to the victors. The Radcliffe matelots have apparently lost every year since the race was inaugurated. But in a way no yacht club official would specify they have always managed to remain modest.