“That’s made the entire program a lot faster and will make us a lot harder to beat as a team,” he added.

The lightweights will get their first test this weekend against Penn and Cornell tomorrow and Columbia, Delaware, and Georgetown on Sunday. Last year, all five lightweight boats posted sweeps against those five opponents.

“This weekend is especially special because we’re going to be racing almost rhalf the league,” Yu said.

“And think we’re going to do very well. We want to test our speed against some good crews that aren’t likely to break down,” he added.

The Crimson will face its biggest test against perennial lightweight power Navy, which defeated the varsity boat by one second in last year’s dual meet on the Severn River.

The Midshipmen would best second-place Harvard by three seconds in the 2004 Eastern Sprints Championships and then again by 11 seconds at the IRAs.

After winning IRAs in 2003—a race in which Navy took second in the petite final—the Crimson finished a frustrating fifth and the Midshipmen captured the title in 2004.

But that was 2004, another even year that proved unfriendly to Harvard

“We have some returning members of the crew of 2003 who placed fifth in 2005,” Yu said. “They want to win it back.”

The Navy crew, however, is still the boat to beat, and Harvard has its eyes set on a dual race rematch with the Midshipmen, scheduled for April 23rd on the Charles River.

It being an odd year, and the Crimson fielding its deepest squad in several seasons, Harvard has every reason to be confident.

“We’re ready to go,” Luff said. “We’ve done plenty of preparation.”

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.