The Hoofer TOP TEN

Following is a handy draft list of major screw-ups by Wisconsin Hoofer Sailing Club staff, mostly instructors. The Hoofer Sailing Club Top Ten:

10. In 2005, Hoofer keelboat instructor Pete Mooney rams the pier so hard with the club's 30 ft racing yacht, Toy Boat, that it punches a gaping hole in the side, requiring an emergency lift-out the next day.

9. 2005. The club's main pier collapses, dropping about 20 people into cold water. According to Wis. Union officials, none of them are seriously injured, despite having been dropped 6-8 ft. down into the water among heavy wooden pier sections and rusty metal trusses.

8. 2011. An improperly moored J/24 blows ashore onto the Union's concrete steps during a storm and is wrecked. The club reaps the insurance money.

7. 2005. The fleet captain, probably hung over from a night of hard partying, forgets to attach ring-dings on a J/24 and the mast breaks off during lift-in. He also forgets to seal a through-hull fitting on a J/22, and that boat sinks the following day.

6. 2008. Negligence by an instructor causes the mast to come crashing down on the club's 27 ft. cruiser while under sail. Miraculously, no one is seriously injured.

5. 2010. Hoofer instructors sink a J/24 in the Caribbean in moderately light wind.

4. 1993. Despite a hurricane warning and orders from the charter company to head back immediately, sailing club leaders insist on staying in Key West to party for an extra day, then predictably get caught in the storm, doing $50,000 in damages to two boats--and bringing an end to the club's popular Florida cruises. To add insult to injury, trip leaders, all of whom are Hoofer employees, then refuse to pony up their share of the lost deposit money.

3. 2015. Hoofer Sailing heavy keelboat instructor Pete Mooney rams the club's largest boat into a well known rock so hard that it almost rips the keel off. The damage is so severe that the boat (Decoy) has to be lifted out of the water the next day before it sinks, and is a total loss.

2. 2015, early June. A Hoofer sailing instructor lets a passenger jump off her boat under sail without a life jacket into cold water, then can't do a proper man-overboard pick up in time to save him from drowning.

1. And the MOAFU: 2017. The rescue motorboat runs over and kills a windsurfer on a clear day. Culpability is never established.

Note that this list doesn't include hundreds of other lesser incidents like flying jibes that send people to the hospital, blown out sails, most pier bombings that result in damage, groundings, thefts, assaults, other criminal acts committed by Hoofer Sailing Club staff, and on and on.

Most of these incidents involve the club's heavy keelboats simply because the bigger the boat, the worse you can screw things up. Note that a flying jibe is always the fault of the skipper, as is the inability to do a timely MOB pickup.

If you think of something we've missed, post it in a comment! Weren't there any major screw-ups between 1993 and 2005?