Kenny Ocker | Sports copy editor
 
University sophomore Elliot Drake became the first person in the history of the Oregon Club Sports Sailing Team to qualify for nationals this fall.
 
Drake took first at the Northwest Intercollegiate Sailing Association races on Sept. 26, which gives him the opportunity to compete at the Singlehanded National Championship races in Texas on Nov. 7 and 8.
 
The event, held in Bellingham, Wash., had 18 competitors from seven schools, including Oregon State and Washington, and was the first of five qualifiers this year. The only other Oregon competitor was junior Philip Gordon, who took sixth place at the regatta.
 
Drake said he is happy to get an opportunity to go to nationals, but the talent he will face there has lowered his expectations.
 
“I know there’s going to be a lot of good competition (at nationals), so I’m not expecting to do great,” Drake said.
 
Only the first-place winners at the qualifying events receive bids to the Singlehanded National Championship races, which will be held in Corpus Christi, Texas.
 
Drake fell victim to that very rule last year, when he finished second to Washington sailor Glen Stellmacher. Instead, this year, the roles were reversed — Drake won six of the eight races on Sept. 25 and took three of the four races on Sept. 26, while Stellmacher finished in second place overall.
 
Their rivalry has not bred contempt, as Drake said that he and Stellmacher have a friendly relationship when on land.
 
The discipline that Drake participated in was singlehanded, consisting of only one sailor and a boat called a Laser, a 15-foot dinghy with only one sail. Most qualifying events are of the doublehanded variety, which has two sailors per boat.
 
After spending much of his childhood on his parents’ 24-foot sailboat, Drake started sailing on his own when he was eight. By age 13, he was on the U.S. national sailing team, sailing a smaller boat called an Optimist, designed as a learning boat for younger children. After the year he spent with the national team, he converted to sailing the Laser boats.
Over the summer, Drake took part in three major competitions independent of the club sports team. On July 11, he took 11th out of 24 competitors at the District 6 Championship in Cascade Locks. One week later at the same place, on July 18, he took 10th out of 40 participants at the Pacific Coast Championship. In his last major summer competition, Drake finished in 35th position in a field of 105 at the U.S. Laser Championship.
 
The sailing team participates in more than a dozen races. It competes in both the fall and spring.
 
Sailing has been a club sport at the University since the mid-1970s but did not start becoming competitive until approximately 2000, according to team coordinator Cara Kuhlman. Much of the program’s early history was lost when a janitor accidentally threw away the files that contained the history of the program during the 1990s.
 
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