Harvard Sailing

The sun is out and the temperature is rising But amid plans of sunbathing by the Charles or frisbee in the Yard, for a talented bunch of sailors and their head skipper the melting river ice means only "Back into the boats."

Coach Mike Horn '62 and his men's and women's sailing squads began their spring drills Monday with high hopes sparked by a brilliant fall season, their best in recent history, which ended with the women ranked second in the nation and the men third by Yacht Racing Magazine.

Professional yachting magazines in general have traditionally given the Harvard sailors enthusiastic attention. Horn says, especially in contrast to the relative lack of praise their successes receive on campus.

The men's team opened strong last weekend by finishing seventh in the 14 team Admiral Moore Trophy regatta in New York City an accomplishment doubly impressive against squads from warmer climes, who had already been practicing for several weeks in the water, while the Crimson skippers had hit the boats barely two days before Horn, though he admitted it "would have been nice to do better," chalked up the performance to early season rustiness, and confidently predicted that the squad will have a shot at the nationals.

Horn a member of Sailing's Hall of Fame, does not make that claim without substance. In his 16 years as coach, his teams have consistently been among New England's strongest, but he calls this year's group "my strongest as far as depth."

The goal for the spring is to qualify for the North American Championships in Long Beach, Calif, at the beginning of June Horn is confident the Crimson can finish as one of the top three teams from the New England team-race championships, which Harvard will host in May, to qualify for the cross-country trip.

"If our people sail as well and work as hard as they did in the fail, we should be able to qualify," he says, but warns. I have seen a lot of good teams not do well on that one weekend and that is what it comes down to."

And the chances of doing badly that one weekend may be high for the Crimson notes team captain Brian Kean because the New England Championships fall at the beginning of Reading Period.

If the team triumphs despite the pains of academics. Kean will have a lot to do with it. The Cohasset, Mass, native a two-time recipient of All-American honorable mention, has been the key element in the teams' success both on the water and in the clubhouse. Ken Legler, the sailing coach at Tufts, calls Kean easily one of the five best skippers in New England, and Horn raves about the captain's leadership abilities. "He has done an awful lot to teach his skills to others and has worked towards bringing the team together as a unit," Horn says.

One sailor does not make a top-ranked team, but Horn says he would not hesitate" to start five other of the squads skippers in a major competition. One of the five is Bryan's brother John Kean 83, whose performance in the Atlantic Coast Championships was the key to the Crimson victory over schools all along the eastern seaboard, closing the fall season with a flourish Horn also singles out as stars senior Craig Shank and Dave Woolsey and juniors Ethan Berkowitz and Hollis French.

The women's team is no weak sister. Junior Rony Sebok captain a group which also nailed up an impressive array of awards in the fall, garnering four out of the five trophies they sailed for and rising to a number-two national ranking by first freeze.

Led by Sebok and senior Meredith-Stelling, and hailed by experts as a top contender among college squads, the women are aiming to qualify for the North American championships at Washington University in June. "If I listen to all the magazines, we are going to win it all, but I know that we must perform up to our potential," Sebok comments.

Horn refuses to recruit to keep the well of talent full, saying flatly that "I will not go out and search for sailors. "Rather, he says, the team record stays phenomenal because its strong reputation and tradition continue to draw the best sailors He added. "If people are interested in Harvard and sailing. I am interested in them."