Sailors Mold A Top Team . . . . . . Without Boats

You wouldn't think a bad of sailing enthusiast that must pay all its expenses out of its own pocket and boasts no racing boat of its own would be one of the best college yachting teams in the country; but that's the story of Harvard's little heralded sailing team.

Thanks to the hospitality of neighbor sailors at MIT, Crimson yactsmen have never had to wish for boats. Harvard sailors, graced with early afternoon use of institute's fleet of 45 dinghles have consistently produced fine sailing teams ever since college yachting gained popularity over 20 years ago.

Actually Harvard hasn't won a sailing regatta all spring. But its almost daily practice routine in the Charles River Basin has paid the curious dividend of 12 second places in the 14 regattas raced so far. The last chance to win comes Sunday in the Boston Dinghy Club Championships.

The men who make up the Crimson team are competitively chosen from the membership of the Harvard Yacht Club. From the 45 men who annually spend fall and spring practising in the MIT dingies and the winter hearing speakers and seeing yachting movies, a "managerial board" picks the Crimson yachting team.

Intercollegiate yachting calls mainly for two crack sailors from each school, since most regattas consist of a series of short race in "A" and "B" divisions with only one boat from each school in each race. But a strong sailing college must have a well rounded squad, because as many as three regattas may occur on the same day and occasional races in which more than two men can enter are held.

Fortunately the Crimson is blessed with two men who are experts in the art of handling a 12-foot dinghy. Both products of the yachting center at Marblehead, these men, Pete Putnam and Frank Scullay, are in large part responsible for the Crimson's recent sailing fortune.

Putnam, who holds down the jobs of Yacht Club commodore, sailing team captain, and Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association president, has sailed boats of almost every description. But his forte is small-boat sailing, and Putnam is co-defending champion of the Boston Dinghy Cup.

On the other hand, Scullay, perhaps the best all-around sailor on the Crimson team, is new to dinghy competition. A past champion in the bigger One-Ten sailboat class, Scullay adapted himself to the dinghy a year ago last fall and he captured the freshman intercollegiate championship.

Other capable skippers besides Putnam and Scullay include Charlie McElroy, who will Putnam shares the Boston Dinghy Cup, Dick Braested, and George Whitney.

Small as they may be, dinghies require a crew, not so much to help the skipper handle the boat but to keep the tiny catboat from tipping over in rough weather. Mike Post and John Gardiner have steady jobs as crews for Putnam and Scullay.

Not Like Bigger Boats

Skippering dinghies is quite a different chore from sailing bigger boats. Even the most experienced sloop sailor must learn the knack of getting the most out of a dinghy. Weighing little over 100 pounds dinghies are extremely sensi-tive and touchy, and one can't relax for an instant.

There are no such expressions as a "fast boat' 'and a "slow boat." All dinghios in a particular class are identical in construction, and, consequently, racing laurols go to the real sailor and not to the man who has simply the advantage of a good boat. Many regattas are now run on a round-robin basis, whereby the same skipper never gets the chance to race twice in the same boat.

Dinghy sailors can always find a race somewhere. The Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association conducts a host of regattas in the fall and spring, and in the winter the Marblehead and other "frostbite" races never fail to lure hardier college yachtsmen, some of whom insist on racing in shorts.

The spring is full of minor regattas, special invitational regattas, and championship regattas. Harvard has entered most of them and has usually wound up in second place. Yale has proved unbeatable this year, and in the several races not entered by the Elis, Harvard has been edged out by MIT.

One of the two races in which the Crimson was not the runner-up, as luck would have it, was the big one--the New England Championships May 7 and 8 which also served as eliminations for the National Championships. In this regatta the Harvard team of Putnam and Scullay dropped to third place, two points behind Brown which nosed out Harvard for the honor of following Yale. Only two boats from New England can race in the nationals.

Last weekend, however, Harvard was back in its accustomed runner-up spot as Putnam and Scullay skippered the Crimson into second place behind the Elis in the Ivy Championships at Brown's Edgewood Yacht Club.

The leading New England colleges have sailing teams of varing sizes and degrees of talent. But only four of these 20-odd schools have more than a dozen boats of their own.

Although, Brown, Coast Guard, and Tufts boast sizable fleets, no college holds a candle to Tech. At MIT, almost half the student body belongs to the Nautical Association, and freshman can even elect sailing as their physical training sport.

Yale, despite a dearth of boats of its own, is represented this year by two junior sailing champions, Bobby Monetti and Bobby Coulson. It is because of these two men that the Eli is having such a frolic in sailing competition this spring.