Xenophobia

We leave a lot of leeway for comments on this blog, one exception being the use of personal names. Civility is not required, although hopefully each comment will contribute something. Jeff put his name out there himself, which was big of him, but we are still uncomfortable with it. The simple fact is that Jeff got the shaft, mainly as the result of general dysfunction within the club, but he is not the only one. The lack of empathy and of any interest in trying to understand sure doesn't help.

This is to be expected, though, when those in charge are 21 year old white boys who never even saw a black guy (except on TV) until they got to college. Discrimination is nothing new for Hoofer "leaders" or for the UW in general. The further you fall outside the 18-22 year old frat boy/girl demographic, the more trouble you're going to have. Recent comments have helped to reveal the seething xenophobia in Hoofers/the UW. For instance:

It is the job of an older man to be friendly, fatherly, and NOT engage at any other level with college age women than they would with their own daughter. That is sick, twisted, and SO wrong.

It is unclear whether that commenter is just trying to stir things up or if there's been a lot of incest in his family. And what does he mean by "older"..? If I'm 28, can I pursue a 21 year old? What if I'm 35--but don't look a day over 25? Our President-elect was 52 when he met his then-28-year old wife-to-be. Michael Douglas was 56 when he met the very hot 29 year old Catherine Zeta Jones circa 1999. Our commenter would call that "sick". I'd probably call it a good catch by MD--or maybe by CZJ. Things may be different for movie stars and billionaires, or maybe not.

According to that commenter, if you're over 40, sitting under the canopy, and not averting your eyes while female undergrads rig their boards, you're stalking them. That's absurd, of course, and it sounds a lot like age discrimination too. I personally don't think most men join HSC to meet women. They join to sail. On the other hand, the club is advertised as a social organization, and lots of people have met their future spouses in the club. Former commodores Chris Frye and Mike Larsen, for instance. It would be interesting to examine whether or not general club members are just as likely to meet their future spouses in Hoofers. If not, that would suggest some misbehaviour by those at the top.

Unfortunately HSC is run mostly by those spoiled white frat boys who enjoy bullying others--especially people who are different--just as they haze and abuse underclassmen pledging their fraternities. It's why there are virtually no mechanisms for mediation within the club, in Hoofers, or at the UW. Once you get a taste of being the abuser, it's a high that you come to crave. Mediation only helps the abusee, not the abuser.

Nor can the abusers be expected to correct themselves. They must be forced, by more decent people, to stop abusing and discriminating against others.

Idle hands

Big news at last night's BOC meeting. Unfortunately, we can't pass along the details, at least not yet, because they involve libel, slander, and other criminal acts by current BOC members (other than me and my co-author, of course). Suffice it to say that there are going to be some very unhappy campers. Stay tuned.

And always remember: Idle hands are the Devil's plaything!

What does that make idle minds..?

The octopussy

People are still needed for the keelboat work party this Saturday! We have to get things squared away out there asap. Details are here:

https://lessons.hoofersailing.org/event/59008

The end of the season is always a sad time, but with enough people we can get this done in a couple of hours and then go grab some food. Or go sailing--the forecast for Sat/Sun is looking pretty nice.

Remember, "Many fingers, er, thar she blows, er, many hands make light work! (Sorry, I am preoccupied with Donald Trump.)

Try not to run anyone over in your rush to sign up.

For Instructors only

Extra lessons are now available, taught by HOI Dave Elsmo.

Tonight is "Rig tuning" (6 PM on the lakefront) for those who want to learn how to maximize a boat's power and win races. This lesson will cover stay tension, car positioning, halyard tension, weight placement, etc. This is only open to instructors (because most of them don't already know that stuff?).

General club members aren't expected to win races, so they are not eligible to take this class. Of course, they're not eligible for a lot of other instructor goodies, either.... General (i.e. paying) club members are mainly around to provide cash for the instructors.

Next Tues Aug 23 will be "Sail Trim". In this lesson we'll cover proper sail trim for all conditions at all points of sail. Again, not open to paying club members.

Huh. I actually teach all this stuff myself from time to time on the keelboats, as do some of the other KB instructors, so why aren't these lessons open to any Hoofer Sailing Club member..? They're not even full (as of the time of this post), and general club members are the ones who pay Elsmo's salary. Evidently he thinks it makes more sense for him to teach it to the "instructors", and then they can try to pass some of it on to the plebes.

C-Cup Report '16

Many thanks to Jo, Steve, and everyone else for a great party yesterday, and a big hug goes out to Justin for all his help :) To those who though it was too warm upstairs at CK, you should have had more to drink stood under the A/C! But Church Key was not a bad place for the ball, once in a blue moon.

Some pics are posted here (you may have to be logged in to see all of them). We love the composition in the photo at right. Chugging champagne with scantily clad gals (and guys)--who said Hoofers isn't great?

Hopefully everyone has recovered by now, or will by the time you have to terach tomorrow. Pizza was a great idea, too.

Fire up for Commodore's Cup!

In the spirit of of the upcoming festivities, we offer an inside look at the club's rock stars, past and present: The 2009 instructor swimsuit calendar! Two thousand nine was the definitive year—a veritable who's who of the greatest sailing club stars of the past 15 years! Some of those pictured are still instructing, while others are (sob!) now gone.

Warning: some people you might not want to see half-naked are pictured with their shirts off. This is offset to a small degree by a few you'd like to see wearing even less....

You think we're joking about how super-cool HSC instructors are? The theme of this year's C-Cup is (again): We are better than you. That is, HSC instructors are better than you, because you suck. That's not me talking—it's the official Hoofer position, and it's even on some of the flyers.

For more on why HSC instructors are cooler than you, why it's great to be an instructor (if you can manage to get "hired"*), the numerous instructor perks, the club's cash flow, crimes that are being committed, and how it all works, check out some of our older posts.

Note that instructor swimsuit calendars are an instructor perk and are not available to general club members, so please don't share it with them. Unless they buy you a pitcher or two.

*HSC instructor hiring requirements: You must be good looking, super cool, and/or friends with the hiring committee members. Sailing and teaching experience not required.