This Saturday the lightweight varsity flies to Amsterdam, Holland, where it will begin training for the Royal Dutch Regatta on the famous Bosbaan Canal Course, June 29-30. This regatta generally attracts major international crews in the Elite Eight event, which Harvard has entered.
After Amsterdam the Harvard lightweights will fly directly to England where they will prepare for the Henley trial heats, which take place July 10. On July 6 they will enter races at Reading, upstream from Henley. The Reading events are raced over a course of only about a mile and Andersen called it "a nice little tune-up regatta" in preparation for Henley.
The Royal Henley Regatta is famouts in international rowing for the top-light crews it attracts here, and for its tradition-laden gala festivities. Doughty old gentlemen, biazered in their school colors, return by the thousands here to watch the shells race up Henley's narrow, twisting course on the Thames River.
Shells from Isis and Mosley Boat Clubs (Oxford and Cambridge) are expected to be Harvard's main challengers for the Thames Cup.
The lightweight varsity's main difficulty this year has been precisely the opposite of their heavyweight counterparts.
The lights have exhibited an extraordinary ability to start fast, and to break (beat, to the laymen) the other shells immediately after the race begins. What concerns Andersen is their tendency to lose speed as the race wears on. Andersen has clocked his crew over each segment of a race, and the times increased. He calls this drop-off in speed "a bit excessive."
On the Ball
He is doing something about it. The lightweights have gone to Red Top in New London where the heavies are training for the Yale Race. Practicing over greater distances should increase the lightweights' endurance. Having a heavyweight shell along side of them during a race should also increase their capacity to put-out in order to maintain a constant speed down the course.
In other racing this spring, Harvard's heavyweight JV fell only before the extremely strong and precisioned machine of Penn.
Freshman Heavyweight Coach Ted Washburn took an unusually small and light squad and turned it into a gutsy, scrappy crew whose will-to-win constantly amazed observers. Like the JV, however, it succumbed twice to Penn, which put a brute-boat on the water that averaged some fifteen pounds heavier than the Harvard frosh.
The heavyweight varsity boatings: Paul Hoffman, cox, Art Evans, stroke; Curt Canning, captain and 7; Andy Larkin, 6; Fritz Hobbs, 5; Scott Steketee, 4; Steve Brooks, 3; Cleve Livingston, 2; and Dave Higgins, bow.
The lightweight varsity boatings: Brian Sullivan, captain and cox; Joe Bracewell, stroke; Bill Braun, 7; Rob Wolff, 6; Ken Moller, 5; Fred Fisher, 4; Jim Garrity, 3; Bob Baker, 2; and Chris Cutler, bow.