It's an empty feeling

HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England -- An uncharacteristic and stunned hush cascaded down the length of the Stewards Enclosure audience at the Henley Royal Regatta yesterday as the Harvard freshman eight, rowing in the Temple Cup, raced toward the finish with seven oarsmen and a coxswain, an empty seat and empty rigger where a crimson-shirted bowman should have been.

On the first stroke of the 1-mile, 550-yard race, Harvard bowman Mike Harrington realized his seat was either stuck or broken, and, according to race umpire Mike Sweeney, after waving to the officials, reached out of the Harvard shell, undid the gate holding his oar, tossed his oar into the water, and bailed.

There are no violation of rules that would allow the race to be called back, and Sweeney allowed the race to continue. Harvard put up a valiant fight, racing with seven oarsmen but losing to the Nereus crew from Holland.

When Harrington bailed, the crew had not yet cleared the fabled Temple Island, which marks the first 20-odd strokes of the race.

"He's a great kid, and it's not his fault at all," Harvard freshman coach Bill Manning said of Harrington, who hails from Dedham. "He had to make a decision, and make it fast. He tried to get the seat back on, and it was damaged either coming off or trying to get it back on. When he saw it wasn't going to get back on, he had the presence of mind to jump out."

Sweeney agreed with Manning.

"It was a very brave display, as was the way the crew rowed afterward," he said. "Jumping out of the bow seat in particular is a difficult maneuver, as you need to duck all of the passing oars and riggers as the boat goes by."

When the crew returned to the boat tents, Manning met with his crew in a tight huddle.

"I told them I am exceptionally proud of them, and that the task of freshman rowing is to produce candidates for the varsity," said Manning. "They need to learn how to race, they need to learn how to train, they need to learn how to row better, and they have to come back hungry. I think they're going to be incredibly hungry."

In one of the ironies that can make the Royal so compelling and such a hard regatta to win, Manning recalled that two years ago, the Nereus crew experienced a broken seat, and although the oarsman did not bail, the team finished the race with seven men, and failed to advance. As a result, Harvard never met up with the Nereus crew, and went on to win the Temple Cup.

As Manning concluded, "That's Henley."

In a Cambridge vs. Cambridge matchup today, the Harvard varsity opens its Henley racing against the Cambridge varsity in the Grand Challenge Cup, while the second varsity opens racing in the Ladies Plate against Grasshopper and Baden of Switzerland.

The Boston University men's varsity eight will also race in the Ladies Plate tomorrow against Leander; they are in the opposite bracket from Harvard, creating the possibility of an all-Massachusetts final. The BU women were eliminated from the first round of the Remenham Cup open women's eights yesterday. The other American entry, Princeton, advanced to the semifinals.