Harvard-Yale Regatta, Riverside Park Forum Coming To Town On Saturday

The country’s oldest intercollegiate sports rivalry and a forum on the future of a municipal park are two events scheduled to take place on the Thames River this weekend.

The Harvard-Yale Regatta heads upstream this year, beginning at the Gold Star Bridge and ending at Bartlett’s Cove in Gales Ferry. Friends of will hold at the park including horseshoes, a watermelon spitting contest, tug of war, and three-legged races between noon and 4 p.m. The park will also be the site for a forum on the future of the site, which the is offering to purchase.

The forum begins at 1 p.m. and runs until 3:30 p.m. Bill Vogel, chairman of the Republican Town Committee and manager of mayoral candidate Rob Pero’s campaign, said Pero will be on hand to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of such a purchase and that other members of the City Council have also been invited. The Coast Guard Academy is offering to purchase about half of the park for $2.9 million, taking 9.14 acres to develop a cultural center and shipboard simulator and leaving 9.41 acres to the city for redevelopment to include picnic areas, basketball courts, and riverfront access.

Hot dogs and soda will be served at the forum. It is scheduled to finish shortly before the main race, allowing attendees to watch the heavyweight crew teams from Yale University and Harvard University push off. According to Yale’s website, a two-mile freshman race begins at 3 p.m. while a three-mile second varsity race and four-mile varsity race both start at 3:45 p.m.

According to ESPN, the race began on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire in 1852. Harvard has won the pairing 91 times, while Yale has won on 54 occasions. The race usually takes about 20 minutes.

Yale has faced stiff competition in recent years. Harvard has won the past three regattas, keeping ahead of the Bulldogs by six to eight seconds on each race. Yale last beat the Crimson in a tight race in 2007, posting a time of 19:57.5 and beating the Crimson by only half a second. That race was the first victory for Yale since 1999.

Correction: The article originally said Riverside Park is hosting Saturday's events. The events are being hosted by the Friends of Riverside Park.