The way the Harvard heavyweight crew was rowing Saturday they could have gone all the way to New York, had supper, and come back in two hours.

Putting in their only official appearance on the Charles of the season, the eight made the old course record look like a museum piece. The Crimson crew led all the way, finished more than five lengths ahead of Rutgers and Brown, and chopped 10.3 seconds off the 8:43.4 mark for the one and three-fourths mile distance.

Even though seven of eight men --including stroke Geoff Picard--are back from last year's boat, and even though that boat was the best collegiate boat in the country, Saturday's performance was almost too good to be true.

Coach Harry Parker was surprised and obviously very pleased. "Our goal for this course was to get under 8:40 sometime during the season," he said afterwards. Conditions for the race were almost perfect, he said. A stiff breeze blow across the boats' port side, but Parker wasn't sure that it was astern enough to account for the fast time.

Saturday was a good day for the Crimson. The lightweight crew also won, staving off strong challenges from both Dartmouth and M.I.T. to bring home the Biglin Bowl. Racing over a 1 5-16 course, the lights finished in a 6:38.2, just six seconds ahead of Dartmouth.

But the heavyweight race was by far the most impressive performance of the afternoon. Harvard moved out immediately, and after only a quarter of a mile, there was open water between the Crimson and the other two boats, which remained almost even throughout. Rutgers finally managed to edge ahead of Brown at the finish.

Harvard maintained a pace of about 32 or 33 during most of the race. In the final spring the beat went up to 37.

Shorter Shell

The Crimson crew was using the Swiss designed Stampfli shell, 4 1/2 feet shorter and theoretically a bit faster than the traditional American design. Races are usually started with all the sterns of the shells even, and that would have put the Crimson, at an immediate disadvantage.

But the other coaches agreed to move the boat holding the Harvard shell ahead--the difference wasn't important this time, but later in the season when the competition gets tougher and the finishes closer, it could be.

Four other Harvard crews raced on the Charles Saturday, and three of them won. The freshmen lights did a 6:49.5 to win with M.I.T. placing second and Dartmouth third. The JV lightweight boat finished 2.3 seconds behind M.I.T., which won with a 6:42.8.

The freshmen heavys finished well ahead of Rutgers and Brown as did the JV heavys.