Fresh from the open seas, the sailing team comes back to Cambridge this fall holding the National Intercollegiate Dinghy Championship title.

With Hanson Robbins skippering the A division dinghy and Bill Saltonstall the B division one, Harvard swept the week-long championships in Providence late in June. Although its winning margin lessened towards the end of the week, the Crimson led consistently all week. Saltonstall, winning a very tight last race, became high point skipper for the B division and the whole regatta.

Now that Saltonstall and Robbins have both graduated, Jim Parker, who crewed for Robbins in the Nationals, will be the Crimson team's main strength in defending the title this year.

Besides being commodore of the Harvard Yacht Club, Parker is president of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association and a past holder of the National Junior Turnabout title for two consecutive years.

Other returning members of the team are Carlos Rodriguez and Larry Snideman, also David Gill, secretary of the Yacht Club, and Tom Munnell, top freshman skipper last year.

To touch off a full facing schedule, the team will journey to Princeton this weekend for a big three championship with Yale and the Tigers.

Although unwilling to predict the team's success in other single races, Parker did say that from its vantage point of being National titleholder, the team "certainly should finish well," particularly if a number of new freshmen and sophomores join the Yacht Club.

On Friday, before leaving for the Princeton encounter, Parker and other members of the sailing team will have an "orientation" meeting for interested sailors.

The rest of the team's fall schedule is as follows: Oct. 10, Greater Boston Freshman Championship and NEISA racing championship; Oct. 17, NEISA sloop championship; Oct. 18, Greater Boston Dinghy Championship and Freshman Octagonal; Oct. 25, Pentagonal Rally at Brown; Oct. 31, Freshman individual crew championship; Nov. 8, NEISA invitational; Nov. 14-15, NEISA Team racing Championships; Nov. 21-22, Middle Atlantic Fall Regatta; Nov. 27-29, Midwest Thanksgiving regatta; Dec. 12-13, Potomac Frostbite regatta.