Harvard, Coast Guard Win Team Race To Give New England National Crown

Harvard sailors, bolstered by crews from the Coast Guard Academy, won the inter-district team racing event at the North American College Championship held yesterday and Monday at Winthrop.

Harvard and Coast Guard sailed as the New England entry in the eight-team field competing for the Walter C. Wood trophy.

Each four-boat team raced entries from every other region twice, and the New Englanders won ten races, and dropped two, one in the protest room after the race.

A Pacific Coast team of the Universities of California at Irvine and Los Angeles and a Southeastern region team of Tulane sailors tied for second place in the series which was sailed in moderate easterly winds on Monday and a light but steady breeze yesterday.

Harvard skippers Terry Neff and Chris Middendorf sailed "excellently," Harvard coach Mike Horn said yesterday, with sophomore Neff winning the majority of the races.

Middendorf, who is a senior, "sailed well tactically," Horn said. In team racing, the winner is determined by the combined finished of the four boats, and not by individual performances. This means that a team member often has to impede the opposition to allow another team member to improve his position. Horn said Middendorf performed this task "magnificently."

Neff and Middendorf were aided by crews Steve Saudek, a junior, and senior, Clem Wood, who were spelled occasionally by junior David Tew and sophomore Chris Hornig.

Individual racing for the North American championship starts today and continues through Friday in the Boston Harbor waters off the sponsoring Cottage Park Yacht Club.

Harvard is rated fourth in the championship which is sailed differently from the team racing event. Neff and Middendorf will be sailing in different divisions, and their combined finishes will determine Harvard's finishing position. Each skipper therefore concentrates on sailing his own race and not on trying to help his teammates, who are sailing in a different division.

Harvard is ranked behind defending champion Tulane, Irvine and Los Angeles, and just ahead of New England champion Coast Guard in the main event, which is for the Henry Morss Trophy, symbolizing college sailing supremecy.

Harvard's chances are good, Horn said, and excellent if Neff--who was Junior National champion last year--and Middendorf continue to sail as well as they did in the team-racing competition.

"There is no question that Tulane has an excellent team," Horn said. "But we expect to finish as least as high as our ranking."

The series will be sailed in Harvard's Interclub dinghies and MIT's Larks and will run either 15 or 16 races, depending on the system of boat rotation used.

The Harvard men had a productive season, winning five major championship trophies, and placing in almost all the rest. The team sailed off with both the Greater Boston and Atlantic Coast Championships, but the Coast Guard sank the Crimson in the New Englands.