Naughty Rascals

Today in club news: the mast broke on one of the club's largest boats, Knotty Rascal. Yes, slow down and read that again: The mast snapped in half on the club's 27 ft cruising yacht--while it was under sail! Club leaders quickly yelled "vandalism!"

Think about that. Either it was vandalism (extremely unlikely), or it was gross negligence. Someone could have been seriously injured had they been hit by the falling rig. The boat had to be towed in afterwards. Even if you're not a sailor, you know that a boat's mast should never, ever come down, except maybe in a hurricane.

KR is a cruiser with wheel steering, a large cabin, and an engine. Don't imagine you'll ever be able to sail it, though--even if the mast gets fixed and you cough up the bucks to join Hoofers (oof). The ratings checklist for KR has almost 500 items on it!! The boat is strictly reserved for club leaders and their friends (like all the club's best boats).

Putting the incident in context

Worst of all, the Knotty Rascal incident is just typical Hoofers. Last year, it was something else. The year before that, something else. Since 2004, two Hoofer keelboats (small yachts) have sunk, one has bombed the pier so hard it had to be lifted out of the water the next day, another had the mast snapped in half (though not while sailing), and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. Yippee! We're sailors!

Meanwhile, the commodore is busy plotting how to abuse long-time club members who are demanding ratings on boats they've been sailing for the past ten years. Welcome to the Hoofer sailing club.