While everybody else was pouring himself a summer Collins, who but the sailing team should bring Harvard its only national championship of the 1951-52 athletic year?

As unheralded locally as they are victorious nationally, Charile Hoppin, Jim Nathanson, Butch Horner, and Tom Carroll climaxed a truly brilliant season by winning the Morse Bowl--the Little Silver Jug of sailing--at Toledo, Ohio, in the latter part of June.

Four for Four

This win gave the sailors the honor of having won every single major trophy for which they competed. They took the Oberg Trophy, and its attendant Greater Boston championship; they won the New England Championship (Coast Guard Bowl); they won the Eastern "Ivy League" Championship (Owen Trophy). Now the multi-gallon Morse Bowl: four out of four.

The Crimson, though, came perilously close to defeat in its first national victory ever. Hoppin had been fighting a virus all during the motor trip from New York, and was still so sick when the team reached Toledo that he was unable to sail the first race.

Thirty-two Races

Sailing championships, it should be noted, are run on a two-division, double round robin basis. Thus Hoppin and Nathanson would each race 16 times. As each two-man racing dinghy differs slightly in performance from its twins, every college team--eight in all--received a chance to sail every boat in its division. Final scores are figured on a point-total basis, scores depending on the order of finish in each race.

Hoppin was supposed to sail "A" division--the labelling is arbitrary and does not necessarily denote skill differential--with Carroll as his crew. But now Nathanson--with Horner his crew--moved over one division, while Carroll sailed "B" for the ailing Hoppin.

Hoppin Sails

Fortunately, Hoppin was well enough to take over again after the first race. And, in something of a fighting finish, tallied 107 points to lead the individual scoring.

Starting with this scramble, and hampered by unpredictable Lake Erie winds, the Crimson entries moved slowly at first, ending the first night of the regatta in fourth place. By the next day they had pushed to third, while Purdue and the University of California vied for the lead.

The final day of the meet brought smoother winds, and at last, in the twenty-ninth race (there are 32 in all, remember) the local sailors finally reached first place.

Team Victory

It was a true team victory--in a 12-foot dinghy, the crew is largely responsible for balancing the boat. And balance, of course, wins races.

The Athletic Association apparently shares this view, for it awarded major letters to all four members of Harvard's only 1951-52 champions.