Levesque a natural-born sailor

Pete Levesque was born in March 1980, and by that June, he'd already started to sail. When his parents first took him aboard their boat off the Maine coast, it initiated what would become a lifelong passion.

"Sailing's definitely been a factor in every part of my life for as long as I can remember," Levesque said.

Now, as he graduates from Tufts, Levesque will head to graduate school in Michigan to study naval architecture and marine engineering. In his future career, he will likely be "designing anything from harbor entrances to off shore oil rigs to pleasure style of boats - anything that has to do with the ocean," he said. "But in all honesty, I'd much rather sail for a living."

Whether he is designing boats or sailing them competitively, Levesque asserts that he will stay involved in the sport for the rest of his life.

Levesque has sailed competitively since he was nine years old, and for the last four years has been a leading athlete on Tufts' only Div. I team. Besides his prowess on the water, Levesque has been important for the leadership he's shown throughout, especially this year as a captain.

Next month, Levesque will compete at the Fleet Race Nationals, to be held in Detroit, MI, June 2-10. His boat qualified two weeks ago at the New England Championships, where he and senior co-captain Caroline Hall placed second in the A division. When their results were combined with the finish of Tufts' B boat, the Jumbos came out on top, beating close competitor Harvard for first place.

A veteran of national sailing competition, Levesque says he will enter this year's regatta with aspirations of winning. Last year, Levesque led Tufts' second-place finish in the team race, and sailed to sixth in the fleet race. As sophomores, he and Hall joined forces to win the A division at fleet race nationals, and Tufts also came in first overall in that race in what the senior classifies as his proudest moment.

"That was a really big moment. We beat a lot of really good people as only sophomores, and it was pretty sweet," Levesque said. "We never led until the very last race [of 18]."

Since the beginning of his sophomore year, Levesque has typically sailed with Hall. He is a permanent fixture in the number one boat, while his partner switches sometimes depending on who is best for a particular race's sailing conditions. For instance, an especially windy day might call for a bigger partner to help deal with the strong gusts as sailing often demands more physical strength than people realize.

"It's definitely physically demanding. [After a race], all my muscles are sore," he said. "It's not like some sports, where you use just your legs and arms. In sailing, your back, arms, legs, and especially your stomach are all being used all the time."

While it demands strength, the senior notes that sailing is also a challenge because "there is this weird sort of third dimension where you have to have a very gentle and smooth feel, because you can't force things. You have to have a lot of finesse."

Despite the challenges and huge time commitment that sailing entails, Levesque has no regrets about the dominant role it has had in his college career, and in his life in general.

"Sailing's definitely the thing that drives everything else in my life," Levesque said. "It's really forced me to figure out how I use my time, because it's a huge commitment. We practice something like 20 hours a week plus regattas all day both days of the weekend. And it's affected the type of people I hang out with - it's definitely shaped me in that it rules my life."

Reflecting on both the difficulties of sailing and on his love of the sport, Levesque recalled the worst conditions he has ever sailed in.

"On the Charles River, in the basin one time, it was particularly bad. It was 25 degrees out and snowing and the wind was very high," Levesque said. "We were racing against kids from Harvard and Brown and BC and Dartmouth, and all I could think was 'here are all these smart kids doing this stupid sport. We're all so cold and this is so hard, why are we doing this?'"

"But, really, it was fun," Levesque concluded. "That's what makes it fun."