Captain Partee!

So it looks like former VC Michaela Rabas was the skipper on the fateful June 6 cruise in which an Edgewater student died after jumping overboard. We checked Michaela's ratings and she does appear to have an O'Day rating. But was she in any way responsible for what happened?

No one who was on board is talking, maybe because the incident is still being investigated. The rumor is that there was plenty of alcohol on board. Yet, it still doesn't seem like it's the skipper's fault if someone who can't swim decides to jump overboard. Is it the pilot's fault if I pop the emergency door and bail out of an airplane at 37,000 feet? Not really.

However, the incomparable Michaela could be held accountable if Mohammad Bagabir was obviously drunk at the time he jumped into the water. That's because the skipper controls the flow of alcohol on board and is thus responsible for the behavior of drunk people on board. The skipper should also know who on board can swim and who can't. When I skipper and it's not all good friends on board, I ask everyone straightaway whether they can swim, just like on a lesson. That's common sense. I am frequently hammered, but that doesn't affect my decision-making with regard to swimming ability because people have been known to drown in their bathtubs, which means the lake is a dangerous place indeed.

Note that the HSC Ground School Manual states repeatedly:

Remember... you [the skipper] are responsible for everyone’s safety!! (p. 11)

You are ultimately responsible for the safety of the vessel and all crew. (p. 13)

it is important to recognize that the skipper is responsible for the safety of all your crew and equipment (your boat) at all times. (p. 15)

As skipper of your boat, you are ultimately responsible for the safety of your crew (p. 16)

The skipper of a boat is ultimately responsible for the safety of the crew and the boat at all times. (p. 17)

The skipper of a boat is ultimately responsible for the safety of the crew and the boat at all times. (p. 22)

Here's a link to Michaela's Facebook page... let her know what you think!

C-Cup '15 ROCKS!

Really, we are talking about rocks--literally. One big one in particular located between the sloop pier and mooring field. Anyone who's been on a Decoy lesson in the past several years has been made aware of this rock due to Decoy's 6' keel. To inaugurate C-Cup 2015, Capt. M. steered Decoy directly into the rock, jolting the keel so hard that everyone on board is still vibrating three days later. That also damaged the keel so badly that Decoy's season is finished. Permanently. The boat is "a total loss" and will likely never sail again.

Meanwhile, as of Tuesday evening, the lakefront is dead. Is it bowling night, or is C-Cup '15 a non-event? It is surprising given that this year's C-Cup is FREE! Which is unprecedented as far as we know, but the club is desperate for participants.

You don't even have to be a club member to participate. Anyone can join C-Cup this year--well, almost anyone. Tailoring the rules to exclude unpopular individuals seems unconstitutional, but Union Director Mark Guthier doesn't worry about such things as he operates in his own little universe.

Anyway, to get everyone juiced, here is a video of "battleship" played at C-Cup three years ago. Pretty tight.

And here is a post from 2013, when the catch phrase was "Make Better Friends". Huh?

And here is a write-up on last year's C-Cup--the first under the new alcohol policy.

Have fun and try not to let anyone embarrass you!

Fire in the Works

Yesterday, one of our operatives en route to a sailing lesson noticed the new "Hoofer smoking area" (see photo). Note the cigarette disposal right in front of the gasolene tanks and gas storage. Heh heh. Aren't cigarettes basically, like, on fire right before you put them out..? I'm surprised Hoofers didn't save a few bucks and just use an empty gas can instead for disposal.

Not to be outdone, the City of Madison is also flaunting its idiotic nature by holding the annual 4th-of-July fireworks a week before the 4th of July—on June 27. My housemates and I didn't even know about the fireworks until we heard them start at 10PM on Saturday night! Did everyone in city government just have a chemical lobotomy..?

Independence Day, as it's called, is a national holiday that occurs every year on July 4. Not July 3, not July 5, and definitely not in June. If the city can't afford a calendar, there are free ones online for shit's sake. Holding the fireworks a week early not only suggests the kind of inbred stupidity usually restricted to Appalachia but also offends one of the great American holiday traditions. This year they were called Shake the Lake due to an apparent lack of interest in funding "Rhythm and Booms" anymore. What?

Our bet is that the same people who organized R&B, er, S&L, are also active in lakefront planning. Perhaps the fireworks were held a week early so people can go see some real ones in Milwaukee next weekend. Yeah. We are so outta here.

Comment on Hoofer Sailing death

The death of 22 year old Mohammad Bagabir, an Edgewood College student from Saudi Arabia who drowned after jumping off one of the Hoofer O'Day 25 cruisers on June 6, is a tragedy. Presumably he was a good swimmer or else he wouldn't have jumped in without a lifejacket. In hindsight, it's a bit surprising that something like this didn't happen sooner at HSC given the number of non-swimmers who go out on Hoofer boats (non-swimmers have always been required to wear a lifejacket).

Nevertheless, the rumored new rule that everyone will now have to wear lifejackets all the time is, if true, just the sort of reactionary and self-serving misdirection Union management and Hoofers have used for years to try to hide or sugarcoat things like discrimination, negligence, cronyism, criminal acts by Union employees, and so on. Forcing good swimmers to wear lifejackets on hot days in 5-10 knots of wind will only result in a lot more people jumping off boats.

The Dane County sheriff's statement, "Anytime you leave your boat, have access to a personal flotation device" is another not-quite-brilliant, canned comment which they're trained to provide. When you jump off a boat, you already have a flotation device: the boat. Of course, poor swimmers should also have flotables in the water with them.

Having swum off Hoofer boats many times myself, I can attest that entering the water from a moving boat and spinning around underwater can be extremely disorienting. Even very good swimmers should exercise caution. If you ever try that, wait until you stop spinning, relax, and don't exhale. Your body will orient itself and reveal which way is up. Most but not all people will also start to float slowly toward the surface (depends on your BMI). You can usually but not always also figure out which way is up by the light, but algae scatters sunlight underwater. The one thing you don't want to do is swim deeper, thinking that you're swimming toward the surface. That may sound dumb, but it's not hard to do.

If you're skippering a boat when someone jumps off, stop the boat immediately and throw your throwable(s). And don't rush to get back to the exact spot or you might run him/her over. This is for summer on Lake Mendota; in cold water or on big water, use the standard MOB procedure.

I for one would not recommend jumping off a moving boat at night. It can be very hard to figure out which way is up before your air runs out. Night swimming off anchored boats is much safer.

The first Hoofer Sailing death?

On Saturday, a man jumped off a Hoofer boat and disappeared. Did he actually drown..? (read the breaking news story here.)

Or is it perhaps a faked death, like in the movies where someone just wants to disappear..?

Stay tuned.

June 18 UPDATE: There have been some good comments, but on principal, we don't like to modify posts or edit their content once they're made. The bit about someone perhaps wanting to disappear was not intended to diminish the seriousness of a drowning.

Sailing dangerously

For those who haven't already heard about it, a Saturday race in the Gulf off Alabama encountered a squall with gusts of "up to 70 mph". That's the typical force of a thunderstorm on Lake Mendota, the only difference being that waves don't build up on Mendota. On the Gulf, these sailors encountered "10 ft" waves--in 23 foot boats. Not a good combo even for experienced sailors. Of course, when you're in a 23 ft. boat, just about anything looks like a ten foot wave.

Imagine if last year's spring break cruisers had encountered such a storm. You can bet the damage would have been a lot more than $10k. We're still waiting on the damage reports from this year's "Hoofer-YachtXP" cruise.