Harvey Love leaned back in his chair in the coaches' office at Nowell Boat house tugged on his weather beaton gray fedora, the well-known symbol of Harvard's varsity crew coach, and stared glumly out the window at the wind and rain-whipped waters of the Charles.

"In this business you've got to go along with the whim of the weather," he said dolefully. "And the last week has been windy and rough. It takes the feel out of the boat, and any Results in such conditions are pretty Inconclusive." Wednesday's time on a race day, and the only reason Love went through with the trial was that he had already postponed it too often because of bad weather. The weather has been rough all spring, and has thrown off any calendar plan for trials, but with his first race three days away, Love couldn't put it off any longer.

Love faces a tough assignment this year, too. In his second season as varsity coach, wins are a must. The rowing alumni don't like defeats, especially by Yale. And Love has lost the stroke and seven man of both last year's varsity and junior varsity eight. Besides this, the competition this year looks as if it would be as taught as it was in 1952. Navy, World's Olympic Champions, has all its eight cars early yet to tell about the other opposing crews, the Midles are obviously the "team to beat."

It's not all black, however. Love got his varsity on the water on February 25, and since then has been putting his oarsmen through daily workout (save for spring vacation when they covered about 75 miles in twice-daily workouts (save for spring vacation who they covered about 75 miles in twice daily outings). There have been no serious sicknesses or injuries, and times have been "seasonally satisfactory, with improvement every trial," according to Love.

The problem now is to select a varsity from three almost equal crews. "No one boat has consistently shown itself outstanding." Love says. "Although one or another of the crews might make a flash for a brief time, it hasn't settled down to a consistent one-two-three pattern."

Even with the first race so close, Love hasn't definitely decided on his varsity beating yet, although it is likely that the 'varsity" he put together as a unit last Saturday will remain the varsity for this Saturday's race. For a while early in the practice season it seemed as if Love have his varsity set, but when the stroke was raised things began to catch up, and since then there has been almost constant switching of positions.

As it is now, Love's first crew was sophomore Needy Blias filling Lou McCagg's seat at stroke. Bliss rowed number two on last season's freshmen. Senior John Atherton, 1952's varsity number three-man, is at seven, with Bob Monks at six. Dick Carroll, last year's freshman 200-pound five-man, is in the same seat on this year's varsity, and senior Lee Rounder has shifted from the 1952 varsity six car to number four this season. sophomore Chic Halle is a three, Captain Phil DuBois is in his regular number two position, while Frank Huntington, another senior has moved up from JV three-man in 1952 to varsity bow this year. Al Lefkowitz is the Coxswain.

The JV boat has Lennie Wheeler and Mike Metcalf, last year's freshman starn pair, in the stroke and seven seats, with senior Link Boydon at the same six car as last season. Dick Higging is at five, with sophomore Howard Crushing at four, and Bill Goertsema at three. Seniors Lee Hendorson and Dan Simonds are the bow pair. The cox is Tod Crowther. Higgins and Geertsema rowed on last season's varsity, while Crushing was the freshman four-man.

Larry Brownell strokes the "third" boat, with Al Dann at seven, Steve Lincoln at six, Peter Simonds, five, Tom Adams, four, Ben Jeffries, three, Steve sound qvist, two, and Cheat Reynolds, bow. Bruce Williams coxes this eight.

Love has a wealth of material in these three eights, plus four extra oarsmen. But he's got his work cut out for him. After last season, the Crimson will be underdogs, but if Love can put together a varsity which can defeat M.I.T., B.U. and Rutgers this Saturday, he'll be on the way to regaining Harvard's traditional glory in crew.