Madison Kollar/The Mossy Log
On Sunday, Nov. 16, Lewis & Clark students Antonio Rioseco ’27 and Coco Palmer ’28 tagged along with Portland State University (PSU) in a sailing practice to hone their racing skills at Willamette Sailing Club. While the wind conditions were milder than forecasted, light winds carried the boats, which coasted over the Willamette River as intermittent rain showers drenched the cold sailors.
After docking their sailboats and changing into clean, dry clothes, PSU and LC sailors shared hot chocolate to celebrate their successful practice and race, of which Rioseco and Palmer placed second in. Their unofficial joint collaborations hint at a future development for LC club sports — reestablishing the LC Sailing Club.
The history of Sailing Club goes back over a decade. The earliest records of the Sailing Club’s regattas go back to 2009 on the College Sailing scoring website. Ever since, the club has competed in dozens of regattas over the years, traveling mainly across the Pacific Northwest. When COVID-19 disrupted college life, many clubs struggled to rebound after sudden cessations and restrictions to their activities, including Sailing Club.
“It was a pretty sizable team for a while,” Rioseco said in an interview with the Mossy Log. “During COVID, they stopped practicing, and the leadership was really struggling too.”
While there was a push to continue Sailing Club in the 2020-21 school year, the club lost good standing after failing to reregister for the following year. Since then, Sailing Club has remained inactive, with their last registered regatta in the spring of 2020.
This unfortunate pause of Sailing Club is something that Rioseco is passionate about ending. Previously, Rioseco was a competitive sailor in high school, but stopped competing once he began studying at LC. Over the past summer, Rioseco rekindled his passion for sailing.
“I started sailing a lot more over this last summer, and I was burnt out for a while after competing in high school for so long. Then I just started doing it again, and I realized, wait, this is actually amazing,” Rioseco said.
After uncovering the history of Sailing Club by talking to previous club members, Rioseco set out to reestablish the club. Alongside Maeva Conroy ’28, Talia Esarey ’28 and Palmer, Rioseco has since worked extensively with Student Engagement to establish the basics of the club — writing a constitution, determining their budget and operating costs, and delegating club positions.
One of the major challenges the tentative club faces is funding, a similar struggle shared by the college and student organizations alike. Compared to other club sports, Sailing Club requires a large sum of money to cover the costs of maintaining sailboats, insurance fees, moorage and miscellaneous costs.
“Funding is going to be another issue. I can get grants from the Oregon Youth Sailing Foundation, but I don’t think it’ll cover everything,” Rioseco said.
Alongside financial uncertainty, Rioseco must work with local organizations, including the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Coalition and Willamette Sailing Club, to finalize information and details about their sailboats and registration as an active team.
While working through the logistics to reestablish Sailing Club has come with hardships, Rioseco remains optimistic that students can expect something in the coming academic year. So far, Rioseco has coordinated unofficial practices with PSU to build camaraderie with the only other college sailing club in Portland. In addition, PSU has generously offered its sailboats during practices as the LC Sailing Club works towards reestablishment.
“Unofficially, Coco and I have gone out with PSU, and I plan to just continue to do that no matter what, but hopefully we can also break away and have more involvement from LC,” Rioseco said.
The exact timeline of when students can expect practices to start is still uncertain. Nonetheless, Rioseco shared his hopes and goals for the future of the Sailing Club at LC.
“I’d like to be able to run two practices a week. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible, of course, but there are PSU’s practices which we can hop in on,” Rioseco said.
Rioseco aims to create an open space for all students, including those with no prior sailing experience, to learn and refine their sailing skills, and — depending on the number of active students — possibly compete in the upcoming academic year.
“The goal is to have something where someone with no experience can walk up and be able to sail later that day. I just hope that if there’s truly enough interest, we’ll be able to get this founded,” Rioseco said.
At the heart of Sailing Club, amongst other club sports at LC, is a Corinthian spirit: a focus on a love for the sport and building sportsmanship. Students interested in getting involved with Sailing Club can contact Rioseco at antoniokrioseco@lclark.edu.
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