The Harvard crew looked more like a sitting duck than a national championship contender just three weeks ago. Harvard's usually overconfident oarsmen were talking about which, if any, crews they would beat.

Their coach Harry Parker, known for monosyllabic responses, had taken to philosophizing about his crew's mortality. Not a building year, no, but perhaps an off-year for the Crimson.

The scent of Harvard's new vulnerability had trickled down the coast and across the country. Crews hawked the racing shirts they might in other years have lost to the Crimson for tickets to the San Diego Crew Classic and their first pot shots at Harvard's untried varsity.

Harvard's J.V. oarsmen followed the script, finishing fifth in their finals. Was that because they thought they were supposed to lose? "Yup," replied one J.V. looking up from his Elsie-burger, "Maybe so."

But in the varsity competition, when Harvard bulleted out of the start to an early lead, the Crimson forgot all its lines--with the exception of the finish line, which Harvard crossed nearly two seconds before the pack.

Harvard's varsity found itself victorious, as much to its own amazement as to the amazement of the losers--Penn, UCal Berkeley, Wisconsin, Navy and Washington--who, informed sources say, are still trying to figure out what went wrong.

Was Harvard that fast or were the other crews (the best in the country) that slow? Did the Crimson's fast start or The Harvard Mystique merely demoralize the contenders? Only the remainder of this racing season will determine whether Harvard's victory was a statement of superiority or a fluke.

The first chapter of analysis will be written at 12:07 today when Harvard crosses the Charles's finish line either in front of or behind Coast Guard and UMass.

The Cadets have both the incentive and the guns to test Harvard. Last year, Coast Guard won the small colleges' Dad Vail Regatta decisively and made the finals of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships.

Coast Guard, with most of last year's squad returning, now claims enough strength to race the East's rowing powers in the Eastern Collegiate League. As the Cadets have been given a one-season chance in the big leagues, they will be particularly psyched for a strong showing in today's competition.

UMass, which would normally have raced Coast Guard exclusively on this particular Saturday, may be propelled by indignation if not by skill. The Minutemen will be anxious to show the Cadets that they are still, figuratively if not literally, in the same league.

"Whatever the source, power in all three eights should make today's race a close one--at least, the word from Newell is, until the 1000- meter mark. "Then watch us," warned Harvard bow-man, John White, yesterday.

"We're expecting a difficult race," said a still-cautious Parker Friday. "The race is fairly important for us as a confirmation of our performance in San Diego. We'll find out if we're as good as we hope we are and Coast Guard is good enough to tell us that."

Personnel Shifts

While the Crimson varsity remains unchanged since San Diego (why tempt fate?). Parker has shifted personnel in the J.V. Dave Beghossian, who stroked last year's freshman boat, will fill the stroke's seat left vacant by Murray Beach who resigned last week.

Also new to the J.V., which races at 11 a.m., will be sophomore Mark Rechtenwald and junior Walter Bryzgornia, two members of Harvard's makeshift coxed-four that also won unexpectedly in San Diego.

Harvard's strategy in both races? "Well, it's very simple," Parker said yesterday. "Just go fast."