Irreconcilable differences

The Nov 30 BOC meeting minutes have yet to be posted (as do many older minutes), so here's the jist.

Decoy, the club's largest boat, is going to be sold. That's the plan, anyway. Say what? You never heard of Decoy..? that's because it's never actually at the pier, or only rarely. It's draft is too deep, so it normally runs aground before it ever reaches the pier.

Why does Hoofers have this boat, you may ask? Because some dumbarses wanted it, so they talked some other dumbarses (on the BOC) into accepting it three years ago. But it's absurdly big for Lake Mendota, and there's nothing you can learn on it that you can't learn on Soma. So unless someone quickly paints Decoy like a cow, it'll be gone by next summer (hopefully).

Some people are pushing for the club to keep it, but, hmm, they all seem to be people with skipper ratings on Decoy.

Also in the minutes: "The J Fleet is taking too much abuse" because "J ratings are too easy to obtain". Didja just now figger that out fellas? Now that you all have your skipper ratings..?

Btw, we're posting this because we doubt if the real minutes (if they ever show up) will include it.

That is all.

Inappropriate kickoff

This Wednesday at 8 PM is the club's Winter Kickoff! Learn how to snow-kite! Snow-kiting is an extreme sport in which you slice across the frozen lake at motorboat speeds on a dangerous little contraption propelled by a kite. If you enjoy frostbite and/or have systemic nerve damage, you will love snow-kiting.

Also this week: This evening (Monday) and Wednesday evening, you can learn how to pleasure yourself (see copy of flyer at right). This event is intended primarily for, um, maybe for people who didn't have any close friends when they were in their early teens..? Another great offering from the folks at the Wisconsin Union! Check TITU for rooms and times.

On the rocks!

Oct 20 UPDATE: As a result of being left on the concrete steps for a whole day, the J-24 is totaled, so the club is filing an insurance claim on it to help balance the books. Note to commodore: whenever you need cash, just go out to a mooring on a stormy night, set a keelboat free, and in a few months if you're lucky you'll have another $10-25K in insurance money! (Just kidding. We know you'd never do that.)

It's everyone's worst nightmare: putting one of the keelboats onto the rocks. Well, last night's 40+ mph wind gusts did just that, and an odd sight greeted visitors to the lakefront this morning (see photo). Incredibly, the J24 is still sitting there, bouncing on the concrete steps, 12 hours later at sunset!

Here's a crutch for J-boaters on "HOW TO TIE A BOWLINE":

The gopher comes out of his hole, runs around the tree, meets the squirrel, they have a couple of drinks, then the gopher grabs the squirrel by the tail and tries to have sex with it, then they do a couple more shots, the squirrel runs up the tree and the gopher crawls back into his hole.

That's it! An easy bowline, tied the Hoofer way!

(Actually, it was the mooring that failed, but more than a few J sailors do have trouble with their knots.)

Raped and robbed--and lovin' it!

As if the controversial Wis. Union "renovations" weren't enough, the UW Alumni Association has just announced that the Union parking lot, concrete pier, and everything else along the lake will be torn up too, to be replaced with a grassy, utopian plaza intended to "honor contributions by alumni". That would be cash contributions of some $8 million. Obviously those alumni don't need to be honored. They need to pay more taxes.

This multimillion$ project is on top of dozens of other major building projects at UW-Madison. It's part of the Campus Master Plan to tear down more perfectly good buildings, e.g. Humanities, Van Hise, Engineering Research, and replace them.

Wherever the money for this billion dollar butt-fuck is coming from (rich people? the state?-hardly, seg fees?) it could be going to a hundred other things that are more important, like health care, cutting UW tuition, better instructors, more support for TAs, road improvement, toxic waste cleanup, alternative energy, ETC. You name it.

But that's not how the world works. Instead, some people rip others off, get rich, and then donate money for "utopian plazas" or other projects (read: buildings) that will carry their names. Meanwhile, overpaid administrators skip their meds and dream up shit like this, even as Wisconsin cuts school funding faster than any other state. UW's funding is being cut by some $250 million.

Note the glass skybox (theatre addition) present in the architectural rendering--plus, motorboat parking!

Save the Terrace & piers

Sept. 1 UPDATE: Architectural drawings produced by overpaid draftsmen are flying around now. Here are a couple of scary ones (at right). I feel sick as I type this. For one, the tunnel is slated to be removed! Then there is the overall ridiculous floorplan redesign resulting in a smaller shop, remanufactured lounge and chartroom, etc. The "boathouse" will be 10% bigger (woo hoo!)--but the canoes will actually be further from the water. Is it just me, or is that fundamentally retarted? Also, the new lakefront access is apparently off to the northeast, thus providing a poorer view of approaching storms while at the same time offering less protection from the rain!

The lower drawing shows the concretization of the lakefront. Does it remind anyone of Indiana..? This is sick stuff, designed by guys in suits working in high-rise office buildings (with input from deranged Union managers). Frank Lloyd Wright must be rolling over in his grave.

[Original post:] As many already know, Union Director Mark Guthier helped force through a referendum in 2006 slapping all UW-Madison students with an extra $192/year in seg fees for the Union (amounting to an extra $200 million students will have to pay over the next 30 years). The referendum failed twice before finally passing on the third attempt.

The extra fees were supposed to be used to (1) raze and re-build Union South (what a friggin waste), and (2) to renovate any run-down parts of Memorial Union and to bring it up to ADA code (i.e. wheelchair access). Guthier and his delusional, drug-crazed staff have since hatched a more grandiose plan for the $200 million. After all, that's far more money than they ever needed for actual renovations, so they've decided to add a huge, glass "lounge" to the theatre lobby. This will turn the west part of the terrace (above Hoofers) into a sunset-blocking monstrosity.

You can get more info and/or help stop this madness HERE.

Also, come to the open forum at the Union next Tues (Aug 30) if you can and voice your objections.

Help Hoofers get your piece of the pie!

There's a general club meeting next Thursday (8/25) to discuss what Hoofers wants in the way of renovations. A long-time instructor had this to say:

We want.... um, we want more boats! We only have 13 keelboats now! Waaaah! And we want a new shop, and a new lounge. And some new chairs too! Waaaaahh! And a new Lakelab! There's so much money in this booming economy, we want it all! We don't like our old stuff anymore. Waaaaahh! Oh, and we want new computers too--we only have Pentium 4's! Whaaaaaahhh!! (wipes eyes) And did I mention new lifejackets..?

So come to the meeting and get your two cents in. That's about all you'll see personally from the $200,000,000.00 seg fee increase forced through by Director Mark Guthier and his cronies four years ago. But if we get enough people to show up, Hoofers might stand to gain, and that would be good for all the paid hacks around here who rely on Hoofers for a job.

Thank you.

In the shadow of death, new life

Last night a new commodore was elected, more or less by default since the only other real candidate was overseas and couldn't speak on his own behalf. As usual, there was some chaos and confusion leading up to the election, e.g . TITU said the election was at 8 pm, Hoofers was telling people 9 pm, and the chalkboard by the tunnel said 8:30pm--until they changed it to 9 (at around 8:30). The club's facebook site featured a great post announcing the 9pm election--at 8:42pm. Way to go, Michelle! Yes, there was an email too, but who reads their email?

Immediately before the election, an emergency BOC meeting took place to discuss revoking a club membership. The victim was Jack Thorneau (not his real name), who was accused of various rules violations, negative interactions, etc--the typical crap. Of course, obnoxious behaviour isn't allowed in HSC--unless you're a current employee. To help provide the proper creepy atmosphere, Union staffer Susan Dibbell was summoned along with her $88,620 annual salary.

AUG 6 update: In a laughable and kinda creepy move, the time of the post announcing the election has been changed to 6:12 pm on the club's facebook site, apparently to try to make it look like club officers are really on top of things. You can tell the post time was altered because it's the only one out of order. Yes, I am bored, but OMG!

Parallels in Nature

Just came across this article in Thursday's New York Times (citing a research report in Science). There are some uncanny parallels to Hoofers. What's most incredible is that UW administrators allow such unsupervised monkey-business.

So we all know who the "alpha males" are, as well as the lowest ranking males, but who would fill the role of beta male(s) in this paradigm..? They are apparently in the best position of all.

2011 Club Portrait

Here is this year's official Hoofer Sailing Club photo! NOTE: If it doesn't include you, that's because you're not in the club.

The real club, of course, consists exclusively of instructors (and a few B.O.C. members and ex-instructors, not pictured). After all, we control the boats, we give out ratings and take them away, we can sail whatever boats we like, we get all sorts of perks including free annual memberships, we have private weekly parties to which 90% of HSC "members" are not invited (but which are paid for by them), etc.

That 90%--the other 9 out of 10 Hoofer Sailing Club "members" like you--are really just paying customers. But hey, that doesn't mean you won't be admitted to the club eventually. Do what it takes and you've got a chance! Here are some suggestions that might help you crack the real membership:

1) Buy beer for current instructors as often as you can.
2) Keep joining Hoofers every year as a paying member.
3) Come to lots of meetings (you're not allowed at instructor meetings, though).
4) Say funny stuff at socials.
5) Be good looking.

That's about all there is to it! Sailing skills are NOT required. (In fact, sailing expertise can be counterproductive--you don't want to show up your current instructor, e.g. on a lesson, because s/he may not be a very good sailor.)

Just sit right back

with your wallet out...

The sailing club/Union have come up with a new scheme to try to raise cash to pay instructors: the Three Hour Dinner Cruise. Prices start at $24.50/person (which is at least $98 for a group of four)--and you bring the dinner. Make sure to bring enough for the skipper and crew too, or they might toss you overboard!

Check out the flyer here.

Are there so few club members who want to sail on the keelboats anymore that the club/Union have to lure unsuspecting members of the public..? I remember when we had Friday evening cruises on at least two or three keelboats every week. What's more, we would happily take anyone along--even if they weren't a club member. Not anymore. Now that the club has started paying kb instructors, it's cash on the barrel (and, in a sense, for the barrel...)

We recommend a picnic on picnic point instead. That will cost you nothing, and you won't have to bring lots of extra food for hungry Hoofers (who are also getting paid by the hour in addition to eating your food).

PIRATE'S DAY!

This Saturday... there will be m-a-y-h-e-m.

Come help us celebrate the lawlessness and abuse!

Get practice at hijacking and other terrorist acts!

Play bumper-boats and do things that would normally get you extra work hours (or worse).

Help glorify assault, rape, and other violent crimes!

Help us eat piggy!

It's Hoofer Sailing Club's Pirate's Day!

New this year: Our group photo for a big postcard to President Obama!*

Cost: $25 (not incl. extra work hours, fines, bail money, etc.)

*Just kidding--we don't want to be arrested by the FBI.

Hoofers/ASA spending opportunity

June 21 UPDATE: No one signed up yet so the testout is rescheduled for June 25.
June 24 UPDATE: Cancelled again--no takers! One wonders if it's because of the assigned instructor, or perhaps people are wise to this scam.

Hey everyone! There's still time to sign up for this year's ASA 101 testout scheduled for June 11! The cost? About as much as an annual membership in Hoofers! ($200 for non-students--plus the cost of HSC membership.)

Passing this worthless course qualifies you to take more worthless ASA courses (and more importantly, at least to paid HSC instructors, helps to support their drug/alcohol habits). Seriously though, ASA ratings are worthless. They're for people who aren't good sailors but who want to be able to say, "Look, I'm a good sailor... I got an ASA rating! (or two) Whoo hoo!"

Good sailors, i.e. competent, experienced sailors, don't need ASA ratings, e.g. to charter a boat. The last thing I would ever do when reserving a charter is to tell them I have some ASA ratings from Hoofers. If you do that you're guaranteed to get extra scrutiny from the charter master when you arrive, and probably a testout too. Charter masters can smell the fear.

If you want to be able to go and charter, say, a 37 ft. cruiser (monohull) in Florida, just learn as much as you can on regular Hoofer keelboat lessons, get a skipper rating or two, and then start teaching keelboat lessons! Alas, that last item isn't up to you--the club simply won't let some people teach. You have to be either (a) super party boy, (b) a groveling workaholic who loves fibreglass resin and power tools, or (c) butt-buddies with the right person(s). Seriously.

Nor does teaching keelboat lessons guarantee you'll become a good Hoofer sailor, but it sure helps.

The legacy of Jim Rogers

As promised, here's a plot of HSC instructor pay over time. Compare this graph with the previous post. It should be pretty obvious why membership dues have outpaced inflation over the past 15+ years.

Note: (1) "Total instructor pay" includes the head instructor's salary as well as the Youth program and instructor training (i.e. all wages), but does not include things like manuals, lifejackets, etc. (2) It also doesn't take into account the free club membership that all sailing instructors get (a $200+ value in 2011), which is a total cost to the club of around $200 X 75 instructors = $15,000. May or may not be significant depending on your point of view.

Note that instructor hourly pay has doubled since 1994, far outpacing inflation. WHY? And total dollars going to instructors is "off the chart." This seems to imply more paid instructors working ever more hours. Not coincidentally, over the same period of time, the price of a general club membership has climbed much faster than the rate of inflation. Aichee wawa.

If you want to do your own analysis or check ours, ask Margaux or Michelle or another BOC member for the relevant data. I couldn't find info for all years (some disposed of perhaps by Mr. Rogers?), but I didn't spend that much time in the files either. However, all years aren't necessary to plot the overall trend.

Milking the Cow

Alright... after a mostly successful lift-in, it's finally time to start thinking about sailing!! And the first thing that comes to mind is how much it's going to cost. If you're not buddies with current club leaders (in which case it costs nothing), then it's cash up front, and non-refundable.

The graph shows the change in membership prices since the early 1990s, compared to the overall rate of inflation. Ouch. The numbers plotted are the price of a regular annual membership. It's apparent that the cost of joining Hoofers has far outpaced the rate of inflation. But why..?

Next time, we'll plot instructor pay over time and find out. :)

NOTE:
1. Some (but not all) years offered an "early annual" discount which explains the apparent dip in 2001. Most people took advantage (the regular price, if you waited, was typically $30 more), so the discounted price is what's plotted.
2. The prices include the "deposit" since fewer than 10% of club members ever get that money back.
3. Some years had additional fleet-specific fees (e.g. J skipper, Keelboat, short board, etc.); these were problematic and are not included here.
4. The cost for current students and non-student Union members was the same until the 2003-04 fiscal year, at which point they decided to really stick it to Union members.
5. The fiscal year doesn't match the sailing season, so in a sense, the years are +/- six months either way.
6. The chart was generated using CricketGraph for Mac.

Daddy's watching

The law says you can't expect privacy in a public place, and in that spirit, the new Union South--which is now officially open for business--is saturated with security cameras.

A quick, cursory, non-comprehensive count found 27 security cameras on the first floor alone, plus at least three outside. The actual total is likely higher than that assuming some of the cameras are mounted discreetly. Given that Union South is five stories tall, it's quite possible that the building contains more than A HUNDRED security cameras.

Does that sound at all unreasonable or scary to anyone..?

Next, we'll count security cameras at Memorial Union and Hoofers.

Sailing toward oblivion

With so much off-topic stuff lately, I have to at least try to make this sound like it relates to Hoofers.

The subject line refers to the oblivion for lower and middle class Wisconsinites that will result if Chancellor Biddy Martin is successful in her efforts to separate UW-Madison from the UW system--which, it turns out, have been going on for quite awhile, probably since she took over as chancellor. Martin's intent is to privatize UW-Madison so that tuition and fees can be raised at will, with no more interference by the state. Martin also wants to be able to downsize (or terminate) any professors (and departments) who aren't raking in the big grant money. Hello Art, Anthropology, and Philosophy!

The more you read about Martin's plan, the creepier it gets. For example, her secret New Year's memo to Gov. Walker listing her goals which at their base include a 20% (or higher) tuition hike over the next two years.

Martin herself states: "The goal would be to keep tuition increases under double digits." Well, we all know that goals are rarely met, so we can expect tuition hikes of at least 10% per year if Martin succeeds in her "New Badger Partnership" plan. They're already rising at 9%, or four times the rate of inflation (between 2002 and 2010, tuition and fees more than doubled while inflation, cumulatively, was just 21%). This publication lists UW-Madison's annual tuition over the past 20 years and compares it to the CPI (consumer price index).

Indeed, all Martin talked about in her Madison Magazine interview last fall was raising tuition as much as possible! Here is a much more comprehensive (and scary) website on her whole privatization plan. And for the legal-minded, here's an interesting side-by-side comparison of existing law, Martin's plan, and the UW System's counterproposal, the "Wis. Idea Partnership".

In short, Martin's belief is that if people can't afford to attend UW-Madison regardless of the cost, then they probably shouldn't be going to college anyway.

Live and let die--Wisconsin style

More semi-off-topic news, but there's not much going on at Hoofers this time of year, and this is incredible....

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has proposed doing away with Medicare and Medicaid. Incredibly, in the same bill, he proposes substantially cutting taxes for the very rich. So let's get this straight.

Ryan wants to toss the poor (along with their children), the disabled, and the elderly under a bus while grabbing their cash (before they land under the bus) and giving it to the rich people who donated to his campaign. Oh, and Ryan also wants to get rid of food stamps. The words blatantly and outrageous come to mind.

It's obvious that Ryan is trying to make a name for himself, but threatening tens of millions of Americans is a strange way to do it. In any case, it's the same as in Hoofers: when you're in a position of authority, and lacking any moral compass, try whatever you think you can get away with.

April Fools

Winter is baaaack, making sailing seem as far away as ever, so to lighten things up, here's a list of Wisconsin's "10 favoritemost sports" based on observations accumulated over the course of many years:

1. Gambling. It's a great way to make an easy buck.
2. Chipmunk Hockey--using a small roadkill as the puck.
3. Hunting. Wisconsinites will shoot anything that moves.
"THIS AD PAID FOR BY DICK'S GUNS, BAKERY, AND BAIT SHOP."
4. Farting a tune. Required to graduate the 8th grade in Wisconsin.
5. Mud Wrestling--fully clothed. Wisconsinites don't like to show off their fat bodies (and usually it's two men fighting over beer or gambling debts).
6. Jello Slurping. It's a great source of protein too! And try this variation: jello made from pureed deer meat. (believe it)
7. Motorboating. Lucky there are no manatees in Wis. lakes.
8. Animal Love. Some Wisconsinites will pork anything that has antlers and fits in the trunk.
9. Ice Fishing. It's exciting because you never know when you're gonna fall through!
10. Bowling. It's indoors, doesn't require any exertion, and doesn't take any brains... what more could ya ask for? "Now an official part of Commodore's Cup!"

And what about sailing..? Although it is popular around Hoofers, motorboats outnumber sailboats in Madison by a ratio of more than 10 to 1. Of course, Wisconsin's very favorite pastime is watching the Packers, but sitting in a stadium isn't quite a sport.

NOTE: this blog does not condone any of these "sports" or much of the other stuff that goes on around Hoofers and throughout Wisconsin.

Budget Repair Bill passes

March 19 UPDATE: A slippery democratic Wis. judge has at least temporarily blocked implementation by the Republican senate of this law.

More semi-off-topic but important and relevant news: Gov. Walker's "budget repair" bill has passed--in an altered form that removed the actual budgetary aspects of it. Apparently, a quorum isn't required for non-spending bills, so the Republicans were able to go ahead and vote without those 14 missing Democrats!

This is disturbing on every level. At best, those Republicans are sleazy operators. But if they violated any senate rules, then they're bona fide crooks. The Democrats are crooks in either case for leaving the state three weeks ago and going into hiding like moles. The circuit courts are full of crooked/incompetent judges. The Wis. Supreme Court has an agenda to harm lower and middle class folks. We already knew that everyone in Wis. Union (UW) management is a crook, and many other UW administrators are, basically, crooks too for raising tuition and fees at three times the rate of inflation--every year for the past 15 years (on average). UW-Madison police are, by and large, sleazy abusive crooks (and in a pleasant twist, they weren't exempted from the bill, unlike most state police agencies).

So the question is: who does this leave in Wisconsin that isn't a crook? Such shenanigans in the highest levels of Wis. government reflects on Hoofers. After all, if everyone is a crook, then your being a crook doesn't seem quite so bad, does it..? OMG.

New head of instruction hired

The club's official site hasn't posted the news yet so we'll break it here:

Hoofers are thrilled to announce that the club has hired a new head of sailing instruction: Dave Elsmo, former coach of the Univ. of Minnesota sailing team.

HSC went with someone who has dinghy coaching experience rather than someone with more general teaching skill. This is understandable given the unimpressive achievements of the Hoofer racing team in recent years. Although they were thrilled to break into the top 20 last fall, the fact is that HSC is bigger than any of the other collegiate clubs (not including Navy or Coast Guard), yet only managed to creep in at #20.

Nor have Hoofers cleaned up in their division in recent years--despite, again, being the biggest sailing club competing. Hence the desire for a dedicated sailing team coach in lieu of someone with more general teaching experience. We invite Dave out for a ride on one of the large keelboats when he can take time away from the 420s and FJ's!

Governor Walker Rules

A bit off-topic, but this is important news. On Friday, our new Republican governor Scott Walker introduced a bill that would severely curtail collective bargaining (i.e. unions) for state employees. UW-Madison staff including Chancellor Martin are up in arms. Why..? Because they've become accustomed to being grossly overpaid and having great benefits, retirement plans, etc. And they'll say anything and everything to try to keep the money.

For example, UW folks claim that the teaching assistant's union, started in 1997, has improved UW-Madison. Nope. On the contrary, UW-Madison has fallen steadily in the U.S. News college rankings since the early 1980s:

Year 83 88 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 08
Rank 13 23 32 41 38 36 34 35 32 31 32 32 34 38

Amazing that 25+ years ago, UW was almost ranked in the top 10 nationally. Oddly, there was an anomalous dip in UW's ranking right about the time the TA's took power, but TA unions have nothing to do with anything except looking out for TAs.

Collective bargaining in general is a non-sequitor for public employees. Historically, unions benefited workers in industry by helping keep corporate power in check, but they have nothing to do with state employment. If you don't like your government job, then quit and get a job in the more competetive corporate world. That's where you need a union.

Wisconsin's massive $2.5 billion budget deficit is nothing less than robbery on an incredible scale. It's 200,000 overpaid state employees stealing from the other 4 million Wisconsin residents--by giving themselves raises, extra benefits, shorter hours, etc. But we already knew that many state employees are crooks. Wis. Union employees are especially adept at getting paid for doing nothing.

Head of Incompetence

The application deadline for the vacant Head of Instruction job was yesterday (unless they decide to extend it again), so this seems like a good time to review past HOI's.

Let's start back in the pre-JimR days, the late 1980s when Kurt Kummer (what a name, eh?) was the guy. As with most Hoofer leaders and employees, Kurt was a party boy, fond of giving keelboat ratings to his buddies. And when Keelboat instructors wouldn't give Kurt the ratings he wanted, he would demand them.

Then along came Jim Rogers who, like a giant octopus, grabbed the job and held onto it for 15 years. Nothing was off the table for Jim. He would slander, harass, and do whatever else was necessary to solidify his position as HOI. And when the BOC wasn't handling something, he would take it over, like a giant amoeba. Every time he could do that, it would make the HOI job more important, his position ever more secure.

When Jim finally slithered on to the Hoofer Advisor job in 2005, Anne Porter found herself as temporary HOI. Anne never seemed comfortable with the job but did manage to use it to further her own interests. For example, Anne would downgrade exams of people she didn't like while tossing those of people who actually flunked--if the latter happened to be her friends.

Then Brian Borkovec took over and found he could not only negotiate his salary but actually vote to approve it (a felony in Wisconsin). Alas, crimes are pooh-poohed around the Wisconsin Union--as long as they're committed by a Wis. Union employee. Borkovec was also known to stalk people he didn't like and then write "reports" on them. Hey Borko: the public can monitor your criminal activities but you as a state employee are not allowed to harass the public.

The last HOI was Tom Barry who was quickly swept into the Hoofer Hole. Humor? Check. Overwhelmed? Check. Farm off the work to your subordinates? Check. When that didn't go so well, Tom managed to quit this past summer before getting fired.

Wow, what a group. Did we miss anyone?

So here we are in 2011, with a new commodore looking for a new HOI who will not only take care of instruction but also coach the sailing team (of which she just happens to be a member). Good golly. What manner o' beastie can do all that?!

We'll find out.

The Hoofer pyramid scheme

Interesting stats from a recent Education Committee email:

Around 65% of the club are new members every year.
40% of new members in 2010 never earned a rating.

Very similar statistics on ratings were reported two years ago on this very blog. Alas, there is an even more disturbing possibility than the two suggested in that earlier post (slow learners or poor teachers): a deliberate pyramid scheme.

And that's what Hoofer Sailing Club appears to be, at least to a significant degree: one big pyramid scheme. The purpose simply is not to teach sailing, but to make money and control resources. The way they do it is by saying, "Give us your money and we'll teach you how to sail." But the large percentage of club members who never learn to sail belie that. Club leaders need a large base of paying "members" to provide capital and operating funds (since the 100 or so club leaders don't have to pay anything), so each year they mount an advertising campaign to recruit new suckers, er, members who will pay around $200 each. Of course there are some good club leaders too, but they're either the minority or are simply dominated by the sleazeballs and crooks. If the latter had their way all the time, HSC would be a model pyramid scheme.

For details, check out these related posts on HSC criminal activities, club structure, money grubbing, and arrogance.