The Harvard sailing team made just one serious mistake at Annapolis this weekend, but they made it in the last race and finished third in the try for the MacMillan Cup.

Tufts won the nine-crew meet with 34 points, Navy was second with 32, and Harvard third with 30.

Taking advantage of mistakes by other crews, Harvard won the first two races of a four-race series, and then finished fifth in the third race. This left them tied with Tufts and two points ahead of Navy going into the final race.

The fourth race began Sunday morning, but with the Harvard crew leading the wind died and the race was postponed until 2 p.m. That was where Harvard made its mistake.

Rather than staying with its competitors, the Crimson elected to tack away from the fleet. Harvard fell way back. Although they managed to pass two boats in the final legs, and finish seventh, it cost them the title.

Harvard was skippered by Tony Parker. The other crew members were Dan Burns, Kinnaird Howland, John Cunningham, Jim Notman, Doug MacDonald, Peter Robbins, and John Bullard.