For a long time, it’s been surmised that without its traditions, Harvard heavyweight crew would be as unsteady as a fiddler on the roof. This year, the Crimson will have to face the music.

Harvard has long skipped the National Championships in order to train for the Harvard-Yale regatta. This year, the No. 2 Harvard heavyweight rowers will follow No. 10 Yale’s lead and compete at the Intercollegiate Rowing Championships (IRAs) in Camden, N.J., just one week before the 151st annual Harvard-Yale Regatta.

The two heavyweight crews have not competed at IRAs since the Championships were held in Cincinnati after the H-Y regatta. However, with the Bulldogs in control of scheduling this year, Yale’s new coach John Pescatore has decided to place H-Y after IRAs so that the Bulldogs can compete for a National Championship.

The Crimson has somewhat begrudgingly followed suit, raising concerns about the diminishing prestige of H-Y, one of the most famous regattas in the world.

According to Pescatore, he made the decision to go to IRAs on September 1, 2002, the day that he accepted the head coaching job.

“It was entirely my decision,” Pescatore wrote in an e-mail. “It’s very important to race the best competition possible; it’s how one can find the will to improve.”

Yale’s decision drew mixed responses from the Harvard heavyweights, who were forced to decide whether or not to follow the Bulldogs to Camden.

“I’m not quite sure what their motive was,” said Harvard coach Harry Parker. “If they’re going and there are no scheduling conflicts, there is no reason for us not to go.”

Captain Mike Skey is a bit more cynical about the ordeal. He said that Yale knew the Crimson would inevitably fall in line if it decided to attend IRAs, because if Harvard trained through National Championships the Bulldogs would have an excuse at H-Y.

“They’re trying to run away from the race,” Skey said.

Meanwhile, junior Kip McDaniel is optimistic about this decision, but only in light of the relative weakness of Yale’s recent heavyweight squads.

“They [the Bulldogs] are, in effect, doing us a favor: we now get to attend Nationals, whereas before we did not,” McDaniel wrote in an e-mail. “The race in the past few years has not been as competitive as it could be, so going to nationals offers us an opportunity to get some fast racing late in the season.”

For those outside of the Crimson crew community, the decision to compete in the nationals might seem like a no-brainer. After all, what collegiate athletic program wouldn’t want to compete for a National Championship? For the Harvard rowers, however, it is deadly serious.

Harvard University is obsessed with tradition—the H-Y Regatta is practically a sacred rite.

The tradition of the H-Y Regatta dates back to August 3, 1852, when a group of Yale rowers challenged their Crimson counterparts to a two-mile race on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Harvard won the contest, which became an annual event held on the Thames River in New London, Connecticut. The varsity race now covers four miles—the longest crew race in the country.