"The difficulty with coxing this particular race is in being able to overtake other boats in the shortest distance without creating clashes of oars or boat collisions," says Leigh Weiss '88, cox for Radcliffe heavyweights. "To be able to steer the straightest possible course given all the curves in the river can make a tremendous difference in a boat's time.

"They start boats several seconds apart and obviously you try to overtake boats in going for a faster time. Oars collide and sometimes boats collide," Weiss says. "Home crews have an advantage, especially if they are familiar with the river.

"The Charles is a tough river to steer on. The course is fairly specific and there are bouys on the Boston shoreline to indicate where a boat cannot go."

But she doesn't seem too worried. "I will be coxing the U.S. Lightweight Development Camp boat, which will be starting first in our event. I hope and expect that we'll have no trouble maintaining that position," Weiss adds.

Olrich now rows in the veterans category. At 72, he says his long-term participation in the Head is "not an unusual thing." He says that of some 300 participants in the original regatta, at least 50 are still doing it.

"Many people stand on the Eliot Bridge and look for a tragedy, and when something like one of these crashes happens, it is a tragedy," Olrich says. "People put a lot of stock in their races."

Hatton has a lighter outlook on the mishaps. "It is a festive atmosphere, but the racing is pretty intense. There's not a lot of laughter while you're rowing, but there's a lot afterwards."