Y.A.C.H.T.* XP

Are you young? Can you handle your liquor? If so, then why not join other hip young people on a cruise in the Bahamas this March! That's a cruise in the Bahamas, not to the Bahamas. You'll have to get yourself to Nassau prior to departure (no refunds if you arrive late).

The price is just $1300** or so for a week of total annihilation. There will be beer, rum, tequila... you name it. You'll have to buy it too, as this cruise is BYOB.

The graph above plots Hoofer alcohol policy vs. Yacht XP over time. Is it coincidence that Yacht XP's inception occurred right after alcohol was banned from Hoofer keelboats in 2014? You'll have to judge that for yourself.

Most organizers and participants are current or ex- Hoofers and their friends. Yacht XP's own Greg Bammel organized the last, semi-successful Hoofer cruise in 2014. After that, official Hoofer cruises were disallowed due to expensive screw-ups on the last two, so Yacht XP is now the only Hoofer-related*** way to get out on the water, get drunk, and get wasted!

Anyway, for under $2000 (probably--airfares to Nassau in March can be expensive), you can come and get shlt-faced with other young people and make up for all those times you wanted to drink on board Hoofer boats last summer but could not!

Note that the price goes up the longer you wait, e.g. signing up in January costs $1400**. If that seems expensive, it might be because Yacht XP gives big discounts to the skippers--who are hoping to get a free ride on you.

Hey, isn't that how it works in Hoofers too?

*Yet Another Crazy Hoofer Trip?
**Plus beer, liquor, transportation to Nassau, personal expenses, bar tabs, your share of any boat damage, etc.
***NOTE that Yacht XP is not officially part of Hoofers any more, but the two did have a formal relationship.

Happy(?) Halloween

In honor of All Hallows' Eve, here's the winner of this year's poetry contest. We hope you "like" it.

Five Fingers of Justice

When the chilly nighttime hours grow,
And powerful nor'westers blow,
Comes knocking at the Hoofer door,
A scratching from the hallway floor.

In beer-laced bliss the doorknob turns
Wherefor a wasted brain discerns,
Pale moonbeams reveal a shape:
A rat, a squirrel, a tiny ape?

Abruptly it scampers into the light,
Ashore to avenge its owner's plight.
Five fingers leade a yellow stump,
Detached from heart, from soul and pump.

At ankle height it coils, then leaps,
Trailing severed end where blood still seeps!
Fast upon the skipper of the boat,
The arm crawls nimbly toward the throat.

Its headless, cat-like corpse alive,
It grabs the Adam's with all five.
A frozen watch reads days gone by;
Now it's time to scream, and die.

With justice served on their mistake,
It crawls back to the cold, dark lake,
The palm and fingertips embossed
With echos of twelve summers lost.

Keelboat Lift-Out 2017

Lift-out is tomorrow, Sat Oct 28! We need as much help as possible, so if you're available, be at the lakefront at 8 AM. Why so early? Because, ah, whoever scheduled it is an early riser?

Work hours will be available if you need them. Or you can come down just to watch big sailboats fly thru the air! We guarantee a good time for all (BYOB please).

The question no one wants to ask is: Will this be the final lift-out at Hoofers? We hope not, but the out of control politics along with recent events has cast a dark cloud over HSC.

Finally, there's new info here on the status of Soma.

Crunch time

As another sailing season draws to a close, our attention strays to Wisconsin's other love: football. As most in Packer Nation already know, QB Aaron Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings and may be lost for the season. Last year we predicted that Green Bay would never again make it to a Super Bowl with Rodgers at QB, and they won't--but oddly enough, that doesn't mean the Pack can't still make it to the big show this year.

After the game, Coach McCarthy said what he had to say: that Brett Hundley will be the guy going forward. At least through next week, that is. Hundley looked serviceable filling in for the injured Rodgers but is unproven. In six days we'll know for sure (and a few of us already know) whether he'll be the starter for the rest of 2017. Beat the Saints and he probably is. Get embarrassed, and GM Ted Thompson picks up the phone.

Who will he call first?

Tony Romo. A native of Burlington, WI, the injury-prone Romo, 37, played 14 years for Dallas, never winning a Super Bowl. Would he fare better in Green Bay behind an injury riddled offensive line? Probably not, and Romo, now a broadcaster with CBS, probably says no.

Colin Kaepernick. Led the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013, but four years later, the mobile Kaepernick, 29, is out of football because management didn't like his use of the national anthem as a platform to protest police abuse.

Brett Favre. Favre led the Vikings to the NFC Championship game in 2009 at age 40 but got beat up by cheap shots from New Orleans players motivated by illegal bounties. Then he played hurt in 2010, and then "retired". At 48, is he too old to play? George Blanda played quarterback at age 48, although Steve DeBerg is the oldest ever to start a game, at 44. Will Favre rewrite that stat as he's done with so many others? If he were a mere mortal, the answer would probably be no. But,...

Incredibly, two of the above--Romo and Kaepernick--grew up in Wisconsin as Packers fans--watching Favre! Clearly there is a convergence here, and one of these three will be wearing green and gold (again) come Week 9.

The Packers are, after all, a business, and the product they had to offer just got hit by a truck.

We are polar bears

As we await the accident report and resist spreading rumors (and there are many), some thoughts on other dangers. Lake Mendota is warm enough for swimming through late September, but now it's starting to get cold again. Mark Gillespie posted a link to a very good article about what happens to the body when you jump into cold water.

In the tragedy two years ago, a Saudi student drowned off the O'Day on June 6 after jumping into cold water. The water temp that day was between 60 and 65º--colder than it is today. And that was at the surface; two meters down it can be much colder. This page shows the water column temperature over the past week. The graph (also above) is hard to read, evidently created by engineers, but the data are there.

Here is a handier list of current temps in the water column. Always keep in mind that the water is warmer in fall than in spring. I'd rather fall into the water in December than in April. It's warmer right now than it was on June 6, 2015. There is thermal stratification, but currents and upwellings can bring icy water to the surface, especially in spring when it's had all winter to cool off. That is apparently what happened to Mohammed Bagabir--he went into shock when he hit sub-50º water. It was windy that day, and wind creates currents.

Also, precious seconds may have been lost because the horseshoe was clipped to the boat--a big no-no. People sometimes clip on the horseshoe thinking that otherwise it might bounce off and you could lose it or have to do a MOB pickup. Arrgh. But all skippers (except dinghy) should welcome every chance to do a man overboard drill. Students: we recommend throwing a flotable overboard at random times during your keelboat lessons. If the skipper complains or retaliates in any way, it means he sucks at MOB pickups. Or, jump off the boat yourself (with your lifejacket of course)! Actually, don't do this with the spinnaker up without permission--that's an annoyance--but upwind, go for it!

When I'm skippering a lesson or cruise and someone jumps overboard to swim, I reflexively throw (or have someone throw) the horseshoe or a lifejacket, and I know other skippers who do the same. Michaela Rabas didn't do this because, um,.... Some hesitate because then you have at least two objects in the water, which is a pain if you suck at MOBs, but it's common sense. If you aren't itching to throw multiple floating objects into the water at all times, you probably need work on your MOBs. This is a good time of year to practice them.

Keelboat Lift-out

Lift-out is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 28, a bit later than normal. That might seem great given the recent weather, but the weather is about to turn. The problem with having it earlier is home football games the two weekends before that, which results in very bad traffic as well as some people with other commitments.

As for actually getting the boats to winter storage, we need to doublecheck the trailers before then. All large trailers need to be registered and have plates. Our records are pretty out of date. Half don't have license plates. UW Transportation reports trailers we don't have and doesn't report trailers that we do have.

These trailers don't have license plates:

Siege (T-10 33', 6,500#))
Spray (Soverel 30', 7,000#)
Soma (Mull 34',10,500 k#)
Cinger (O'day 25', 4,000#)

Siege's doesn't appear to have ever been reported to UW Transportation.

There are pictures of all the keelboat trailers at https://uwmadison.box.com/s/zvs54bwioaucwguhwo3tnbsa72gu4mbk

Hoofers may like to avoid paperwork, but this needs to be taken care of asap.

Black and blue

People often ask what the different flag colors mean, especially on days like this. Here's everything you need to know about Hoofer flag colors.

Green means light wind, like today. Mainly for greenhorns and visiting parents, but it is possible to spice things up with creative use of equipment in ways it wasn't designed to be used.

Green/yellow: The wind is light but with storms in the area, so there's at least a chance of fun should one pop up.

Blue: The flag experienced sailors want to see every day. Unfortunately, we only see it about once a week at this latitude, even less in August. Heavy rating required (wind averaging >17 mph or unusually gusty).

Blue/Yellow: Blue with storms in the area, and it's probably warm and humid out too. Arrgh.

Blue/Red: For experienced windsurfers--wind is averaging >25 mph. Keelboaters should also look forward to blue/red, but for some reason, most don't. Maybe we're awarding skipper ratings too easily..?

Red: No sailing. unless you're clever (mainly applies to kboats). Always keep an eye on the radar, and if it's green/yellow or blue/yellow, position yourself on the far side of the lake and stay there. Then if a storm comes, you'll have to sail back! In so doing, you'll gain valuable experience (if you survive). This trick has been used in the past, although we're not sure it was actually done intentionally.

Purple: In days past, the practice flag meant beginners with no ratings could safely go for a float.

Finally: there is a secret color that means anything goes.

An example of "blue/yellow" conditions would be today's forecast for Honolulu: partly cloudy, 89 deg, wind NE 15 gusting to 23.

We had a day like that here once. I think.... back in 1999....

The long kiss goodbye

Now that C-Cup is over--and wild fun it was, except for the alkohol problem (as in lack thereof)--we can focus again on sailing.

For those who haven't heard the latest on the club's largest boat, Soma--a.k.a. the Cow Boat--there is discouraging news.

Having sat at the farm for the past year, and now in need of significant repair, Soma may be destined for recycling. (of course, big fibreglass boats aren't actually recyclable, but that's a topic for another post.) Soma was in decent shape at the end of the 2015 season, but instead of getting standard off-season maintenance, some overeager yahoos started major projects without consulting anyone first, and now the boat needs major repairs. Unfortunately, it looks like Soma might not get them because it's easier to accept new donations, even if they're of junkier boats.

This is bad news for everyone in the club, even if you've never set foot on Soma. Soma is a unique boat unlike anything else the club has. At first glance, it might seem better to have two T-10's than a Mull 34 and one T-10, but that's fallacious for two reasons: (1) Variety makes for more learning opportunities. What if all we had were Techs and J-22's..? (there are people who actually support that idea.) (2) T-10s are mediocre boats. Compared to Soma, a T-10 is like an old Ford vs. a custom Rolls.

25 years of Hoofer abuse has taken a toll, but Soma is well built, so what it comes down to is: are enough people willing to put time in to get Soma seaworthy again? Losing workspace at the farm doesn't help, but that's a reflection on the lack of HSC leadership. Unfortunately, certain club "leaders" (hi Mark G!) are eyeing Soma's trailer like vultures circling a dying horse. They also have another, more insidious motivation: by getting rid of Soma, they can (they hope) get rid of a few individuals who have Soma ratings by making sure that, once Soma is gone, those individuals never get skipper ratings on any other keelboats.

Welcome to Hoofers, where your money goes a...way.

Party of the fifth part

Commodore's Cup 2017 is under way! Alas, there don't seem to be many Yu Chen t-shirts around. However, we did have a new event in honor of things this year: The Pissing Contest! (photo at right)

To the amazement of some of us, many club members still don't seem to have a clue that a Hoofer instructor was run over and killed by the UW rescue boat a little over a month ago. But then, can paid "staff" really be expected to risk their jobs and income by publicizing something like that and potentially turning away paying *customers..?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A bigger question might be: Why should a cooperative of "students and community members working together" (that's from the club's own website) have staff to begin with? It's because some people don't want to participate unless they get paid for it.

Above is a shot of the sardine race. At least no one drowned today, although I saw at least one person get run over. Party on!

*a.k.a. general club members.

Idea for C-Cup

There's no additional news yet on the recent tragedy, and our previous post has pretty much been speculated to death, so here's an idea: Make Commodore's Cup a special event in honor of Yu Chen and as a kind of memorial to the recent tragedy.

The club could (and probably should) print up t-shirts with Yu's portrait, or at least his name. Maybe a nice shot of a windsurfer with text below or something like that, plus something that says C-Cup '17. Yes there was the memorial gathering, but that doesn't mean we can't do this too. It would reach a bigger audience and could also serve to bring awareness of the dangers inherent in sailing and other sports. If we could get news coverage, the event might also help to encourage a proper investigation into the tragedy (that should be happening already).

If you go to images.google.com and type "windsurfer art", you get some nice images that could easily be adapted for Hoofers. Photoshopping a good photo taken on Lake Mendota would also be an option, e.g. using one of the artistic filters. We're not art students but there are people in the club who are.

This would work best if club leaders like the idea and decide to go with it, but it doesn't necessarily require their participation. The idea was suggested by a commenter on our previous post.

Time's a wasting.

Another Hoofer death

JUNE 21 UPDATE: Here's another article on the incident. It begins, "The tragic death of a skilled windsurfer last month in a collision with a rescue boat on Lake Mendota turned a spotlight on the University of Wisconsin Lifesaving Station. The rescues performed by the station’s lifesaving crews, on the other hand, typically go unnoticed." Is the Cap Times suggesting that death by motorboat doesn't warrant so much attention or that it's a fair trade-off given all the "rescues" they perform..? In either case, we emphasize that there are one or two scenarios where it may not have been entirely the rescue boat's fault.

JUNE 14 UPDATE: More info here. The DNR and UW are refusing to release investigatory data and video and have refused to allow examination of the boat. Incredibly, the boat has apparently been put back into service already, presumably so active use will wash off whatever evidence remains. Almost sounds like corrupt public officials trying to protect themselves from liability.

JUNE 13 UPDATE: More details are trickling in about Yu Chen's death. Apparently he was run over by the "rescue" boat from behind, which seems to suggest that the motorboat crew were indeed at fault in this tragedy. Chen's family has retained an attorney to sue the crap out of the UW. WARNING—the above link gives some fairly graphic details.

JUNE 5—We hoped to have more details on the investigation by now, but here are the basics.

Last Wednesday, Yu Chen, a popular Hoofer sailor and former instructor, and a good friend, was killed by the Hoofer/UW lifesaving boat. That would be the 31 foot twin-screw "rescue" boat which weighs in at about 8,700 lbs. Yu together with his board probably weighed about 180.

The clowns at the Badger Herald worded it as follows: "a 43 year old man was killed after colliding with" the UW lifesaving boat. That makes it sound like Yu ran into the motorboat! What it should say is: "after being hit by the UW lifesaving boat". Harvey knows very well that sailboards have right-of-way over motorboats. (And now the Herald staff know too.)

The accident occurred around 5:45 PM. How is that possible? Evidently something was impairing the rescue staff's ability to navigate. Sunset is 8:32 PM now, so the sun couldn't have been in their eyes. Maybe Yu was in the water at the time and thus not as visible, but that's no excuse either. There simply is no excuse.

"UW lifesaving" has become "UW Lifetaking".

UPDATED JUNE 8.

Another T-10?

With the season fast approaching, the club has just acquired a new toy for the boys (and for the girls too, of course). Speaking of beautiful ladies, on the right is a photo looking up under the poopdeck of our newest keelboat, Siege. It is a Tartan-10 donated by Glen Gordon, an avid sailor and racer down in Waukegan, IL. Word is that the donation isn't official yet but will be soon. Even when formalized, boat donations often don't stick around Hoofers for long, either being sold off cheap to preferred club members or stored on the farm until they can be taken as a tax write-off.

The Tartan-10 is a bit of a funky design. It has a fractional rig with a small chute, the cabin top is flush with the deck (and thus disorienting for drunk people), and the cabin has zero headroom. That is to say, it ain't no cruiser. But then, alcohol is now verboten (pronounced: for boatin') anyway, right? On the plus side, the T-10 has a wide transom making it very stable downwind. Some consider the feel of a T-10 to be more like a J-24 than a typical large keelboat. It is lightweight (~7000 lbs) though not an ultralight.

One or two T-10's have been donated in the past and were not kept by the club, having been deemed less than ideal for the keelboat program. However, given the recent losses of several Hoofer keelboats, we can probably use another one. Even when we do keep donated boats, they often don't last very long. Most end their lives as victims of sailing incompetence or otherwise damaged beyond repair (e.g. Decoy, Toy Boat, Maria...). It's a miracle that Soma is still sailing, or hopefully will be. But hey, if a big guy like Glen can sail a T-10 for years without falling through the cabin top, maybe we can too!

Guthier Day

Today is Earth Day, a time for everyone to pause and consider what they can do as individuals to help the environment. For instance, recycling, using less plastic, biking instead of driving, rowing out to the keelboats instead of taking the motorboat, eating less meat (meat production is inefficient), protesting nuclear power, protesting monkey abuse at the UW Primate Center, protesting child abuse (we're all children of the Earth), and so on.

Earth Day also provides a chance to pause and appreciate the beauty of the natural world. Lake Mendota, for instance. It's pretty right now--before the iridescent slime of summer arrives like a spilt tanker of green paint. The photo above is a good example of why we need Earth Day. It shows the new Union parking garage under construction. Note how it will almost completely block the view of the lake from Langdon Street! Alas, it would have cost more to make it entirely underground. What's worse, the new enlarged garage will encourage more driving and less walking and biking. The planners/perpetrators must have been high when they designed and approved this thing.

And yet, Union management claim that the Wis. Union is "green"! Let's try to make sure Hoofers at least is as green as possible. Beer drinking is green because beer is a natural product of, um, plants and stuff. Happy Earth Day!

Living the lie

The annual instructor hiring charade is finally over with. Were you "selected" (or not)..? Someone recently complained to me, i.e. someone who applied to instruct but wasn't selected, er, hired. S/he is a very good sailor, personable, loves to sail and windsurf, and s/he enjoys alcohol (the main critera for "selection"). Yet, s/he wasn't approved and won't be allowed to instruct even though s/he applied as a volunteer

If you think applications are evaluated fairly, they're not. Returning party buddies, er, instructors, get priority--even though teaching sailing at HSC isn't intended as a job but is part of one's overall education. The club's home page states explicitly (and correctly) that instructing is "the best way to become a better sailor". And yet, they refuse to let qualified, enthusiastic individuals teach lessons even as unpaid volunteers!?

It is human nature to try to build and maintain a comforting world view. Nietzsche explained this using the concept of illusion vs. reality. In a vernacular, it's known as "living the lie". To make existence bearable, our brains reject ideas that conflict with our preferred world-view, regardless of how accurate that view may be. The fact that Hoofers is run by sleazeballs is an unpleasant reality that is difficult to accept. We want desperately to believe that Hoofers is a nice place where everybody can learn in happiness and be treated fairly.

Most people are afraid to complain, reasoning (and rightly so) that if they do, they might suffer even greater abuses. The Japanese have an adage for this: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". Unfortunately the problem isn't confined to Japan. It exists wherever some people are given arbitrary authority over others. The crooks in charge of hiring aren't 100% at fault because it's the system that facilitates unfair access to resources and perks. There simply is no incentive to treat general club members, i.e. paying customers equally.

Baseball, sailing, and UW

In honor of the opening of spring training (and the lack of March sailing news), we digress to thoughts on some related topics. We already pointed out some of the drawbacks to living in Wisconsin, but there is a more deep-seated and insidious problem here--an exploitative philosophy that devalues the state and its population.

The Milwaukee Brewers typify this philosophy. Where but WI would record numbers of suckers pay religiously to see a team that has never won a championship and never will? The Brewers are in perpetual "rebuilding" mode, which is double talk used by scum bags who have no intention of ever fielding a winning team. They know it's enough to field a serviceable team because most WI fans are gullible and believe what they're told. Like, "We're rebuilding."

The running excuse for Milwaukee's 47 years of mediocrity is that it's a small market team that can't compete with the deep pockets in New York and L.A., but that's b.s. St. Louis is a smaller city than Milwaukee, yet somehow manages to win the World Series almost every other year! Need more evidence? The Brewers released Chris Carter, the 2016 home run champion, this offseason--a dumbfounding move never before committed by any major league team in the history of the sport! Who releases the home run champion?! Lest you think that was a fluke, last year the Brewers released Khris Davis, who proceeded to hit 42 home runs in 2016 for the Oakland A's. Oh, right, they're rebuilding...

If ever a baseball team shat on its fans, this was it. The modus operandi in Milwaukee is: "Heey... this guy is really good! Let's get rid of him." That the Brewers can put one over on WI fans year after year says something about the intelligence of those fans. There may be other factors at work too. Over the past three+ decades, Milwaukee has plummeted from the 16th largest U.S. city to 31st, due in part to white flight, and is now one of the most segregated cities in Amerika.

One thing is certain: Too many members of the UW-Madison community are getting fubar'd instead of educated or enlightened. UW's supposed motto of "sifting and winnowing" is another sucker play--a chronic joke perpetrated on state residents by University of Wisconsin administrators, just as Brewers' management is pulling the wool over the eyes of the state's baseball fans.

Let's go study party!

During the cold, dark months when about 20 users meet biweekly in the Mendota lounge to discuss club things, and the football season has ended, we wax poetic on related topics.

Our previous post noted the declining academic rankings of UW-Madison, and we all know how successful the football program has become. To go with the latter, UW-Madison once again received the coveted(?) #1 ranking in the Princeton Review for TOP PARTY SCHOOL for 2016-17. We're right up there with the likes of West Virginia U., coming in at a hot #2. Where is West Virginia anyway?

Of particular interest are the criteria used by The Review in ranking party schools: "low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus, and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities." Given the marginal standing of the Greek system here at UW, those first two criteria must be astronomically high. Indeed, the number of people who come to class hungover or even still drunk on Friday mornings is astonishing.

Funny you never see Princeton (or Harvard, Yale, Penn, Stanford, Berkeley,...) on that list. There were some great parties when I was at Yale, but to be fair, they are better here. Well, ya go some places for academics and other places for other things.

According to the UW's own response to the Review's rankings, 34% of UW-Madison students drink themselves silly almost every night. (Thurs through Saturday anyway.)

As Homer Simpson said: "Being drunk on a boat is called 'sailing'".

The PigwACKERS

For lack of sailing news--it is winter, after all--we turn our focus to Wisconsin's favorite sports team, from the meat-packing capital of the Midwest: the Green Bay Packers. After the entertaining 44-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, QB Aaron Rodgers wore a grey knit cap, but it wasn't pulled down far enough to hide the shame.

The game was one for the ages. After a couple of early miscues by the Pack, Atlanta surged to a 24-0 halftime lead, and the rest of the game was a laugher. Early in the third quarter, Atlanta made it 31-0 behind the excellent if robotic play of QB Matt Ryan. The Pack did make a half-game of it, outscoring Atlanta 21-20 in the second half, but most of that was garbage time.

The lopsided loss can't be blamed on injuries, although ego may have contributed. Despite beating #1 seed Dallas last week without Jordy Nelson, he was allowed to play this week with broken ribs. He spent the game running around the field wincing in pain instead of catching passes.

"We wanted to get some hits on them and see how healthy they were," said Falcons linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. Not too healthy, as it turned out. Thanks, Jordy.

As we first reported here, the Packers will never make it to another Super Bowl with A-Rod (heh, heh) at QB—and probably not for many years after he retires. Most people seem to agree. If the Packers can get this close after playing lights-out for two full months—a stretch in which the Pack went 8-0—and still fail to win the NFC, well, you do the math.

Why do we hate the Packers so? For the same reason we hate the Badgers. As the UW football program continues to soar, with six Rose Bowls since 1990, UW-Madison continues to slide academically. Since 1982, UW-Madison has plummeted from the 10th ranked university nationally to 44th, while the football program has gone from a perennial also-ran to a powerhouse. At this point, love for academics and love for football are mutually exclusive.

Of course, there are other educational aspects to sports, e.g. physical and social, and the same is true for the sailing team and for Hoofers in general.