It has been a long time coming.

The Harvard varsity sailing team qualified for its first Team Race Championships (Nationals) since the Team Race Competition was installed 10 years ago, by finishing second over the weekend at Tufts.

Nationals will be held in June.

The sailors who competed for the Crimson were Gordon Burnes and Petra Schumann, Peter Wagner and Jeff Kurland, and John Pernick and Beth Pryor.

Competition started Saturday with eight teams participating in a round robin, and the top four finishers qualifying for yesterday's semifinals.

After the first day of competition, Boston University, Tufts and URI had qualified for the semifinals. Harvard, Dartmouth and Boston College were in a three-way tie for the all-important fourth spot.

Thus, the three teams had to square off in another round robin--in which B.C. beat Harvard, Dartmouth slipped by B.C. and Harvard cruised by Dartmouth.

Once again, the three squads found themselves in a three-way tie, and had to enter a double round robin yesterday morning.

This time, the Crimson whipped B.C. and romped past Dartmouth twice, to propel itself into the final four.

Entering the semifinals, fourth-seeded Harvard (7-8 on the weekend) faced first seed URI (7-1).

What a difference a day makes.

"We didn't sail that well during the first day of competition," Harvard Captain Burnes said. "But we came together as a team and sailed better the second day."

After settling into a nice sailing groove, the Crimson destroyed Rhode Island in the best-of-five series, 3-1. The victory gave the Crimson a ticket to the finals, and a guaranteed berth in Nationals.

Tufts, the hometown favorite, had knocked off third seed B.U., 3-1, to enter the finals.

A tired Harvard--which had already sailed over 20 races on the Mystic River--proceeded to lose to the Jumbos, 2-0.