REPORT: DROWNING OFF O'DAY

Well, it looks like the sheriff's report on the June drowning off Cinger is finally available.... someone posted a link to it yesterday in our earlier post. (Thanks!) Here's the link:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=53085929967739185235

The report answers many questions but also raises some new ones. This is what we got out of it (you may want to read it yourself):

Michaela Rabas is partly responsible for the death of Mohammed Bagabir, but it was mostly his own fault. It seems he was a hard partier and/or loose cannon--he had been punched in the face a week before the fateful cruise (breaking his nose), had a 4 inch special stogie in his backpack, apparently hit his head hard on the boat before going swimming, and was still eager to jump into cold water. But he was apparently a decent swimmer.

As for the former VC, several things jump out that are alarming:

1. 60 degrees is very cold water. We always hear about 55, but that's because anything below 55 is deadly. And the air was only 72. And Bagabir was from Saudi Arabia! The only way I'd go into 60 deg water is if I were drunk or stoned. In light of the big joint found in Bagabir's backpack (see p. 21) and the THC in his bloodstream (see p. 50), it seems it might have been the latter.

2. Michaela apparently put the boat into irons for swimming. That's a piss poor idea (unless you're on a tech) because it will immediately start to drift away. On the other hand, if Rabas came hove-to as another witness suggests, she obviously didn't do it right. In any case, the fact that she stopped the boat shows that she was aware people wanted to go swimming in cold, wavy water--and approved. Well, ya know, some people have bad judgment even when they're not drunk or stoned.

3. On p. 14 it says "Michaela had put the sail up and was running the boat by herself" but on p. 30 it says "Rabas said she also dropped her sail during the man overboard procedure." If she was sailing the boat by herself, it sounds like maybe they didn't have a headsail up (the report isn't explicit as to which sail was lowered). It would be great if someone with firsthand knowledge could clarify this for us.

4. According to witnesses, Michaela fracked the MOB maneuver and then started yelling for other people to jump into the water to try to swim over and save Bagabir. That's a cardinal no-no because then you have at least two people overboard, in cold water, and someone who's panicking can easily endanger a potential rescuer unless that person is an expert swimmer.

Of course, the tragic death is also partly Union Director Mark Guthier's fault for his endless stream of bad ideas and other screw-ups. The new alcohol policy, for instance. Note that apparently no one on board Cinger--in particular Michaela or Bagabir--was drunk. Yet people were behaving like stunt men anyway. If mature adults were allowed to have a beer on board a keelboat, maybe Bagabir wouldn't have felt compelled to light up beforehand and then do crazy stuff. One also has to wonder how the two pitchers consumed by several of the guests on the Terrace right before the cruise--a result of not being allowed to bring any alcohol on board--affected things.

Guthier's draconian alcohol policy is not only strangling the social side of the club but is causing people to do screwy things in response. More on this in our next post.

Conference Sail Party

SEPT 1 UPDATE: We've learned that Peter just turned 21 at the end of 2014. Thus, if the photo was taken before this season, he was under 21 at the time, and if it was taken this year, he was blatantly violating the Hoofer alcohol policy. Worst of all, if it was taken in 2014, then he was doing both--drinking illegally and violating the new alcohol policy, while he was commodore!

Now that a mostly-alcohol-free Pirate's Day is in the books, here's something amusing, er, shocking.

The HSC conference sailing website reads: "Imagine relaxing on the bow of a sailing boat while a qualified Hoofer instructor guides you across the clear, blue, waters of beautiful Lake Mendota..."

That should probably be changed to read, "Imagine slamming an ice cold beer served by a Hoofer instructor as you relax on..." (and what the heck is a "sailing boat"? Do they mean "sailboat" or "boat under sail"? Who wrote that anyway? Sorry, I digress.)

That is a beer in Pete's hand, isn't it? In fact, it looks like everybody on board has one, including people who appear to be under 21. And our source says this was a conference sail.

But it can't be that because that would have been a flagrant violation of the Hoofer alcohol policy not to mention state law (underage drinking/serving alcohol to minors)--especially for a former commodore and education rep.

Maybe Peter can clarify some of this for us.

NOTE: If you have news to share, always try to send it asap because sometimes we are busy, out of town, partying, etc.

CATCH P.D. IN 2015!

(Wow, that headline almost makes it sound like a disease, doesn't it?) And it may well be, but Pirate's Day is also a lot of fun!

Where: The lakefront
When: Next Saturday
(see the flyer at right for details)

Speaking of flyers, it looks like someone has been taking them down almost as fast as we can put them up. So here are some tricks that might help:

1. Don't make them all the same color. If they're all exactly the same, they might be easier to spot from one kiosk to the next. But I think we're already doing this.

2. Use different flyers. Oh wait, I think we're doing that too.

3. Make them in different sizes. Again, harder to spot all of them. But dang, I think that's been tried as well.

4. Leave a stack of them at places like Ragstock, although that's been tried too, I believe.

5. Completely cover them with clear tape, thereby making them harder to tear down. At least, it will take a few seconds longer.

6. Superglue plexiglass over them?

7. We could recruit club members to stand guard at each one, and if someone starts to take one down, we can say: "Excuse me m'am/sir, but we're trying to publicize an important cultural event, and even though you can't participate, everyone else can.

Why are we posting flyers advertising P-Day to the public anyway? Are we actively trying to entice non-members to come steal boats at night..? Aren't there enough club members to man the boats? That may be since PD isn't the drunken party it used to be.

Also, a couple of our flyers had been covered up by someone else's. Not much we can do about that, but we did remove the offending ones.

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.