Dangerous games

In the past 24 hours, one swimmer and one sailor have died in Madison lakes.

Early this morning, at around 2:45 AM, a 22 year old swimmer drowned in the Hoofer mooring field. His female companion, apparently not as intoxicated as he was, “attempted to assist him to shore," according to the article. If only they'd known how to sail, she possibly could have helped him onto a nearby sailboat and they could easily have come ashore that way. (UWPD probably would have charged them with trespassing, vandalism, unauthorized presence, theft, and some other things, but at least he'd still be alive.)

But did he really drown..? Or is he merely the latest victim of the Lake Mendota Monster?

Meanwhile, on Thursday evening, a 66-year old man died after being thrown from his sailboat while racing on Lake Kegonsa. The Kegonsa club mostly races MC scows and Flying Scots, so the boat might have capsized. The man was wearing his lifejacket, so obviously there's no point in that.

Fishing for Suckers

Why are marginal incompetents teaching ASA courses, or any keelboat lessons for that matter? This makes Hoofers look bad. Students who pay lots of money don't learn nearly as much as they could. And now the ASA instructors are distracted by pirate's costumes and booty.

And didn't most of the current "ASA" instructors get their certification here, making them Hoofer ASA groupies..?

For any suckers, er, potential students thinking about taking an ASA course, you can learn a lot more just by joining HSC and taking lots of keelboat lessons. Then you can take them on various keelboats too, not just the J24. The cost is similar, and you get to sail at Hoofers for a whole year. Anyone who didn't already fork over that hefty ASA fee should think twice. For beginning and intermediate sailors, you're not going to learn anywhere near enough in ASA 101 to charter a boat. Better to really learn to sail, then charter next year.

And I'd be very wary of presenting any ASA rating earned at Hoofers to a charter company. Try that and you'll likely end up paying an extra $1000 for a hired skipper to come along on "your" charter. Many Hoofers have chartered boats 35ft and bigger with no ASA ratings, no Coast Guard certification, nothing but good overall sailing skills learned over the course of several years. Charter captains can smell a fake.

The best instructors aren't even teaching this year. And the commodore quit, and now we have fleet captains being replaced. Typical.

HSC Auction a Success?

June 8 UPDATE: Count the people on board Soma or Spray (at right, during Hoofer Extravaganza) and win a free boat ride! Count the people on the pier, and the new commodore will give you a kiss!

This year's sailing club/Hoofer auction had a yummy buffet. And there were free booklets describing all the live auction items. But where were all the people? Most items in the silent auction only had one bid (the starting bid), and it was even tougher getting rid of all the one-on-one lessons and cruises during the live auction. Let's hope this was a moneymaker and not the alternative.

The problem seems to be, the auction started three hours before sunset at 5:30pm so many people were still out sailing, and most others were out on the Terrace listening to Jazz. Maybe a later start for the auction next time would result in better attendance, more bidding, and more cash.

As for what you might have "missed":

- $30, An old, old Tech sail (sorry, already got mine out of the dumpster)
- $30, Day or night sail with ChrisF on any boat. Has Chris really given himself ratings on every Hoofer boat? And what if I want my night sail on an E-scow?
- $40, A sunset cruise with JustinC. All alone on the boat. With Justin. At night.
- $50, An "adult beverage" cruise with DougM. Woo hoo! No more of those non-alcoholic baby beverages.
- $60, Wine and cheese cruise with JJ (does JJ actually sail?)
....AND the coup d'etat:
-$150, Rhythm & Booms sail for you and 9 of your friends--plus the skipper and "a few other club members". Good golly, how many people is that..? Enough to fall through the deck?

Next time, the club should sell something worth buying (cheap), like the J29, or maybe Toyboat. That's what you have to do to make any real money.