CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – With swirling winds making for a turbulent course, the U.S. National Team failed to win its tenth consecutive championship men’s eights title at the 40th Head of the Charles Regatta Sunday.

The national team, representing the Princeton Training Center in New Jersey, had a comfortable lead going into the final stretch but crashed into the Eliot Bridge about 400 meters from the finish line. The team finished sixth.

, more than 29 seconds behind first-place Cambridge University Boat Club out of England.

“We were going a little fast,” said Marcus McElhenney, the U.S. coxswain. “I knew we were in trouble two bridges prior because of the way the boat was turning. The wind was pushing the bow to starboard.”

The wind forced regatta organizers to shorten the course from 3 miles to 21/2 for the entire weekend, the first time that has happened due to weather. In 1996, the regatta was canceled because of a severe storm, and in 1969 the course was shortened due to repairs being made on the Cambridge pumping station.

The U.S. championship men’s fours team, also representing the Princeton Training Center, won its race, edging second-place Harvard University by less than a second.

“We rode onto the start, turned around and really got cooking right away,” said Pete Cipillone, the fours coxswain.

The Canadian National Team won its third consecutive championship women’s fours title. Representing the London Training Center in Ontario, the Canadian National Team won with a time of 13:32.448, beating second-place Vesper Boat Club out of Philadelphia by five seconds.

The ARS Nereus team, which included members from the Dutch National Team, won the championship eights women’s race, edging a team from Princeton University (N.J.) by nearly two seconds.

With temperatures in the low 50s, the Red Sox in the World Series and the New England Patriots hosting the New York Jets this weekend, Head of the Charles organizers were pleased with the turnout. Police estimated a crowd of 125,000 at the regatta Sunday. A crowd of more than 80,000 people attended on Saturday, which was close to last year’s number, according to Head of the Charles executive director Fred Schoch.

Schoch said the Head of the Charles pumps roughly $25 million dollars annually into the Boston/Cambridge economy.

AP-ES-10-24-04 1724EDT