The Harvard varsity lightweights avenged last year's man overboard loss to Navy as John Higginson's eight cruised home with its twelfth Haines Cup in 13 years, stroking through the Midshipmen and the UMass heavies on a fast, tailwind-aided Charles River on Saturday.

The varsity hopped off the stake boats immediately, and by the time it had settled from its racing start the Navy coxswain was already shouting May Day as the Crimson held an early six-seat advantage.

"It was a good start for the first time this year," number four man Carlan Yates said, "and it really suprised us. By the time we reached the 500-meter mark we had open water on both Navy and UMass and from then on it was a pretty relaxing row."

The Annapolis and Amherst contingents battled it out for the runner-up honors, with the yellow and blue garbed Naval fleet eventually outlasting the Berkshire boatsters, but both crews finished nearly three lengths behind Harvard's wake. The Crimson's winning time was just two-tenths of a second under the six-minute mark.

The other lightweight race of the day shaped up with the Harvard, Navy and UMass jayvees and the Crimson's 3V splashing it out in some nautical warfare. The 3V had already split up on Friday evening for a race in four-oared shells with a Navy four. The Midshipmen gunned down both Crimson boats in that encounter.

On Saturday however, Navy was not as fortunate as the second varsity boat moved out from the very start and by the 500-meter mark it was anchors away for the Crimson. With a steady four-seat lead under its rudder, stroke Kevin Cunningham and company simply and slowly lengthened out their margin.

Harvard crossed the finish line with a slight open-water advantage over the crew that was supposed to provide the toughest competition for the Crimson crew's oars.

While the J.V. was beating Navy the Harvard 3V was adding to its wardrobe as its shirt race with the UMass J.V. saw the Crimson cruising to a six-second victory.

Not all of the UMass crowd went home naked, however. The Minutemen's first freshman heavyweight boat won the shirts off the backs of freshman lights by virtue of its half second win. The Navy plebe boat is not allowed to leave the Annapolis campus, except for the Sprints, and thus it did not make the trek north. The Crimson will face Yale and Princeton next week for the Goldthwait Cup in preparation for the Sprints on May 16.