Hoofer Sailing Club: Difference between revisions

Hoofer Sailing Club
Hoofer Sailing Club
Location	Wisconsin
Coordinates	43°06′N 89°25′W / 43.100°N 89.417°W
Basin countries	United States
Surface area	9740 acres (39 km2)
Max. depth	83 ft (25 m)
Shore length1	21.6 mi (34 km)
Settlements	Madison, Wisconsin
	1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

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Hoofer Sailing Club (website) was founded in 1939 and is part of the Hoofers outdoor adventure clubs[1] at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the Wisconsin Union Directorate [2]. It currently has approximately 1,200 members and 85 paid and volunteer sailing instructors. It originated as an all-volunteer club where members maintained boats and taught each other how to sail. See also: Sailing and Sailing Club

The club owns its piers at Memorial Union on Lake Mendota along with more than 120 different boats and sailboards. Fifteen different types of craft are sailed, including the Hoofer-designed Tech Dinghy. Snow kiting is offered in winter. There is an adaptive sailing program for individuals with disabilities, and a youth program for those who are not old enough to be regular club members. Over 300 youths from ages 10 to 16 attend the Hoofer Youth summer program[3] yearly.

Instruction and boat access are included in the membership dues. During the regular sailing season, members may check out any boat/board on which they have ratings. Hours are generally limited to times that UW Lifesaving Service[4] is operating. Club members are required to volunteer 6 hours of labor a year or else must pay higher membership rates. The club has active socials and special events, including a Pirate's Day in June and a week-long Commodore's Cup in July.

Famous Hoofer Sailing Club members include Peter Barrett[5], an Olympic sailing gold and silver winner, and Peter and Olaf Harken, the founders of Harken, Inc., a sailing-hardware manufacturer.

Hoofer Sailing Club - Overview

Instruction

Instruction is offered primarily in small-group lessons on craft owned by the club. In theory, there is no limit on the number of classes a member can take, although lessons are sometimes full. A basic ground school is required of all members to introduce them to club rules and basic sailing concepts. During the off-season limited classroom instruction is offered on topics such as navigation and weather prediction.[6] The club also sponsors classes on sail making and repair.

Racing program

The Hoofer Sailing Club sponsors the University of Wisconsin's Sailboat Racing Program [7], an intercollegiate program for undergraduates. The Sailing Team primarily uses the club's 420s and Flying Juniors but also the Lasers and Tech dinghies. In addition, the club sponsors regular races by its members on the various fleets and competes in races sponsored by the Mendota Yacht Club. The club's J-boats are sailed in match races or Mendota Yacht Club handicapped races. See also: Intercollegiate Sailing Association, Dinghy Racing, Yacht Racing

Fleets and equipment

The club has a wide range of equipment available for use by members and for instruction purposes. The boats are divided into fleets for administrative purposes.

Dinghies

Badger Techs[8] are small (11 ft), stable fiberglass boats that are the core fleet for the club. (PDF instruction manual). (video of Badger Tech training), (video of Badger Tech daysailing). The club has committed to renewing this fleet on a rolling basis, and ten were recently added to the fleet. A small fleet of Laser dinghies is maintained in cooperation with the Naval ROTC program. These are fast solo boats. Sailing a laser has been said to be windsurfing while sitting down.[Laser website] 420s are two-person performance dinghies used by the racing team for their practices and regattas. A number of them are fitted for use with spinnaker and harness. A rating on the Badger Tech is required to take lessons on the 420s.[9] Flying Juniors (FJs) are a similar type of performance dinghy, also used by the sailing team. The FJs are secured during the summer when there is no intercollegiate competition. (photo)

Badger sloops

Badger Sloops[10], pictured above, are 17-foot open-cockpit day-sailors that can accommodate up to six people. Redesigned by Hoofers (based on the Interlake design), the Badger Sloops were built in Madison. Badger Sloop instruction manual A rating on the Badger Tech is required to take lessons on Badger Sloops. On special occasions, Badger Sloops accompany the keelboats on moonlight sails.

Wind surfing boards and sails

Many people join the club just to learn to windsurf and use the equipment. Beginners start with long boards such as Mistral Prodigies, Hifly Mambos, and Hifly Melodies. After mastering the basics, students can then move on to short boards such as the Bic Techno and more advanced techniques like harnessing, use of footstraps, and freestyle moves. [11] See Windsurfing.

Scows

The Hoofer Sailing Club also owns several I-20s, C-scows, and E-scows, smaller cousins of the enormous A-scow. All of these are flat-bottomed, inland racing boats unsuitable for sailing in large waves. (photo) See also: Inland Lake Scows, Hoofer Scow Manual

Keelboats

The club currently has nine keelboats, divided into J-boats and "heavy" keelboats. The J Fleet, or light keelboats are small monohulls with outboard motors and an array of sails. The fleet currently consists of two J-22s, two J-24s, and one J-29. A rating on 420s or a crew rating on a heavy keelboat is generally required to take lessons on the J-22s and J-24s. (more) (J-Fleet Manual) The heavy keelboats generally have inboard diesel engines and are heavier than the J-boats. Club members without any ratings or prior sailing experience can take lessons on the heavy keelboats or an "Introduction to Sailing" lesson on a J boat. The club has two types of "heavy" keelboats: racing and cruising. The Cruising Keelboats include Spray, a Soverel 30 cruiser that was donated in 2003 by a retired UW-Madison engineering professor. Knotty Rascal(more), a Precision 27 cruiser with wheel steering and a furling headsail, is used along with Spray in the Cruising curriculum which is based on the US Sailing[12] books Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising, and Bareboat Cruising. The club also owns two Racing Keelboats: a G&S 30 (Toy Boat)(more) and Soma, a Mull 34(more). Both are used to teach spinnaker handling, and both are regularly raced by members in Mendota Yacht Club races. (Short videos of Soma being pleasure sailed.) See also: Gary Mull

Snow kiting

The club has a selection of kites and boards for use during the winter when Lake Mendota is frozen. Kite flying can be learned throughout the year. See Snowkiting.

Social events

During the sailing season, club members gather on Friday evening after Tech races for free membership-included food. Locally produced beer is frequently available at a cash bar. The Commodore's Cup[13]is a weeklong series of team contests and celebrations held in July. Teams compete throughout the week and are judged not only on sailing ability but on creativity and hospitality. The week culminates with a semi-formal dance, the Commodore's Ball at which trophies are awarded including both the Commodore's Cup. Pirate's Day in June is essentially a treasure hunt on the water. Squirt guns and water balloons can be seen in abundance. A prize is awarded for best costume. The club continues its Friday night socials in the off-season at nearby restaurants with discounts on food and beverages. Members can also participate in the Hoofers' Winter Carnival sponsoring a formal dance called the Snow Ball. In recent years (2006-2007), the club has sponsored another costume dance, the Buccaneers' Ball, around the end of October.

Donations

All of the club's scows and keelboats have come to the club as donations. Substantial cash donations were used to replace the 420 fleet in 2007. Such donations are tax-deductible.

Brief history

In the early days of the club, Hoofers sailed wooden dinghies called "Olympics". These were followed by "Hoofer Cubs" and wooden scows. In the 1940s, Hoofers began sailing "Tech" dinghies, originally an M.I.T. design [[14]], and in 1967, Peter Harken modified the MIT version into the first Badger Tech. Over the years, various types of sailboat have been available to club members, including such unusual boats as catamarans and, one season, a Rhodes 19 oceangoing daysailer.

Dinghies to yachts

In 1982, a Santa Cruz 33 racing yacht named Maria was donated to the club. This led to the creation of a big boat (keelboat) instruction program, a rarity for collegiate sailing clubs. Seven years later the club received Soma, a Mull 34. In 1996, in the dead of night, several club members painted black spots on Soma which has since become a Wisconsin icon known fondly as "The Cow Boat" (photo). In recent years, several other large (30+ foot) yachts have been donated; some were kept and some sold.

Instruction program changes

As the club acquired a greater variety of boats over the years, instruction attempted to adapt. For example, after the large keelboats were donated, lessons were initially taught by paid staff. In 1990, several club members worked successfully to institute a policy whereby any rated skipper could teach lessons. The idea was that anyone qualified to skipper a 30 ft yacht was also qualified to instruct on it. Although mastery comes from practice, the very nature of managing a crew of seven or eight requires the ability to teach others. Unfortunately, a lack of oversight led to inconsistencies and conflicts, and in 2001 keelboat instruction control was taken away from the keelboat skippers and placed back under control of the regular instruction program.

The number of instructors has been limited. Every instructor--paid or volunteer--receives a free annual club membership. This amounts to lost income for the club, so there is an incentive to keep the number of instructors low. There is also a tendency to re-hire individuals who would otherwise decline to volunteer their time. In addition, as the number of instructors grows, the amount of time required (paid or volunteer) to supervise those instructors also grows. Today, instructors form a de facto club-within-the-club, having their own socials, meetings, and retreats. [[15]]

Florida cruises ended in 1992

Starting in the 1980s, the club organized popular winter cruises in the Florida Keys, with as many as six yachts chartered at one time. These sponsored cruises were invaluable for newer sailors who wanted to gain real world experience. Many crucial aspects of big boat sailing are difficult or impossible to teach on tiny Lake Mendota (39 km²), including boat handling in large waves, motoring in currents, docking in a slip, and navigation. In 1992, the club's last official cruise ended in disaster. Several charter yachts were damaged, one seriously, when some skippers delayed their return in spite of orders from the charter company, then got caught in a storm. After that, the UW-Madison's Risk Management office disallowed any further club-sponsored cruises.

Cruises to the Carribean and in the Great Lakes are still organized by members but not under the auspices of the club. Thus, many club members are no longer able to gain this valuable real-world experience.

Free beer discontinued in 2002

For some time beer was also provided free to members at socials, but after several incidents, Wisconsin Union management decided in 2002 that free beer would no longer be provided.

Governance

Hoofers is a part of the Wisconsin Union which bills itself as the university's unofficial "department of social education".[16] [17] Every August, the club's president, or commodore, is elected along with the vice-commodore. The commodore then appoints the remaining 18+ Board of Captains (BOC) members and he can remove individual BOC members at his own discretion. Thus, the club's commodore has tremendous power within the club, and each new generation of club leaders can dramatically change things for the better or worse. Due to the meager checks on the Commodore's authority, there is opportunity for abuse. As in Lord of the Flies, civility is artificial, and in the absence of a consistent, equitable, and enforceable set of rules, savagery takes over and unpopular individuals are denied access to resources and eventually eliminated. Indeed, club members have been removed for complaining about inequities in the administration of club resources, and club leaders have been taken to court.

In 2005, in response to ongoing complaints about mismanagement and abuse at Hoofers, a Sailing club BOC member proposed a new Code of Ethics. However, the proposal was ultimately defeated when the Sailing Club president voted against. [18] [19]

Criticism of the Club

Several Hoofers and ex-Hoofers have called attention to problems they see within the club. These include:

1) Instruction issues.. In the 1970s, any club member with a rating on a particular boat could teach fellow club members and give ratings. Thus all club members had the opportunity to improve their teaching skills if they desired. It was a pluralistic system that encouraged everyone to get involved by sharing their own information but was hard to insure each hoofer had proper sailing knowledge. By the early 1990s, instruction came to be dominated by paid staff. Since 1990, only three individuals have been employed as Head of Sailing Instruction--despite the fact that Hoofers is billed as a place where anyone can develop their leadership skills. [20] The Head of Instruction is hired (and re-hired) by the club's governing body, the Board of Captains (BOC), some of whom are paid staff. They in turn are hired (and re-hired) by the head instructor. It is a system that invites abuse of power and borders on illegality. [21]

Today, all paid and unpaid instructors have to apply and go through an interview process. Yet, instructors aren't hired based on sailing skills, and no practical test is administered. Instead, there is a written exam to test basic sailing knowledge, but the results are tossed when popular individuals score poorly. Qualified volunteer instructors are regularly rejected, resulting in more paid instructors and higher membership costs.

2) Teaching development.. In recent years, there has been a controversy regarding the club's mission [22]. The Hoofer constitution [23] recognizes that because Hoofers is part of a major university, club members should be able to develop not only their sailing skills but also their teaching skills. Yet, paid instructors are often selected to serve on the BOC, which governs club operations [24]. At the same time, the BOC votes on issues such as pay raises for instructors, whom to hire each spring, and how many volunteer instructors to use. See Conflicts of interest section below.

3) Membership cost too high. Membership dues have increased, although not much faster than inflation.

4) Lesson availability. On some boats, there are not enough instructors and lessons fill up quickly because of the shortage of instructors. It is misrepresentation to advertise to prospective members that they can take "unlimited" lessons.

5) Equal Treatment in Awarding Ratings. Getting a rating on some of the larger boats can be difficult. An instructor's view of a student's sailing skill is not always as objective as it should be, and some instructors give ratings more easily than others.

6) Censorship. In 2005, club leaders added a Forum to the club's website for announcements, suggestions, feedback, and complaints. The Forum quickly became a bulletin board for vociferous criticism of all aspects of club functioning. By early 2006, club leaders had finally had enough, and the Forum suddenly disappeared.[25] It later reappeared, but now only administrators could make postings [26]; thus, it was no longer a Forum at all. These trials with the club's Forum highlight serious underlying issues for club management and demonstrate the level of censorship being exercised by these public university students/employees.

An Uncontrolled Environment

Wisconsin Union management may be at fault. Controversy has surrounded the Union is recent years. Although it is a public facility, Madison residents are regularly ordered to leave, and in 2006, Union staff and UWPD made headlines when they maced and arrested U.S. Senate candidate Ben Masel after he declined to leave a public event at the Memorial Union Terrace.[27] Also in 2006, Wisconsin Union management slipped a $240 million fee increase past apathetic students, future legions of whom will now have to pay an extra $200/year in fees over the next 30 years. Only 4% of the student body voted in the election.[28] [29] [30] This comes at a time when fees at UW-Madison were already skyrocketing at more than twice the rate of inflation. [31] In October, 2005, a section of the main Hoofer pier collapsed during a publicity event, dropping more than a dozen spectators into the water among splintered pier sections and steel trusses. [32] Although no one was seriously injured and the pier was rebuilt the following year, this incident spotlights shortcomings in the management of Wisconsin Hoofers.

External links

@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 ==Governance==
-Hoofers is a part of the Wisconsin Union which bills itself as the university's unofficial "department of social education".[http://www.union.wisc.edu/introduction/] [http://www.hoofers.org/OPOffice/HooferLeaderGuide.htm] Every August, the club's president, or commodore, is elected along with the vice-commodore. The commodore then appoints the remaining 18+ Board of Captains (BOC) members and he can remove individual BOC members at his own discretion. Thus, the club's commodore has tremendous power within the club, and each new generation of club leaders can dramatically change things for the better or worse. Due to the meager checks on the Commodore's authority, there is opportunity for abuse.
+Hoofers is a part of the Wisconsin Union which bills itself as the university's unofficial "department of social education".[http://www.union.wisc.edu/introduction/] [http://www.hoofers.org/OPOffice/HooferLeaderGuide.htm] Every August, the club's president, or commodore, is elected along with the vice-commodore. The commodore then appoints the remaining 18+ Board of Captains (BOC) members and he can remove individual BOC members at his own discretion. Thus, the club's commodore has tremendous power within the club, and each new generation of club leaders can dramatically change things for the better or worse. Due to the meager checks on the Commodore's authority, there is opportunity for abuse. As in [[Lord of the Flies]], civility is artificial, and in the absence of a consistent, equitable, ''and enforceable'' set of rules, savagery takes over and unpopular individuals are denied access to resources and eventually eliminated. Indeed, club members have been removed for complaining about inequities in the administration of club resources, and club leaders have been taken to court.
 In 2005, in response to ongoing complaints about mismanagement and abuse at Hoofers, a Sailing club BOC member proposed a new Code of Ethics. However, the proposal was ultimately defeated when the Sailing Club president voted against. [https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/keelboat/2006-May/msg00049.shtml] [http://hoofersailing.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=55&func=view&id=6&catid=9]
@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 ) <b><i>Equal Treatment in Awarding Ratings</i></b>. Getting a rating on some of the larger boats can be difficult. An instructor's view of a student's sailing skill is not always as objective as it should be, and some instructors give ratings more easily than others.
-) <b><i>Censorship</i></b>. In 2005, club leaders added a ''Forum'' to the club's website for announcements, suggestions, feedback, and complaints. The Forum quickly became a bulletin board for vociferous criticism of all aspects of club functioning. By early 2006, club leaders had finally had enough, and the Forum suddenly disappeared. It later reappeared, but now only administrators could make postings [https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/keelboat/2007-February/msg00002.shtml]; thus, it was no longer a Forum at all. These trials with the club's Forum highlight serious underlying issues for club management and demonstrate the level of censorship being exercised by these public university students/employees.
+) <b><i>Censorship</i></b>. In 2005, club leaders added a ''Forum'' to the club's website for announcements, suggestions, feedback, and complaints. The Forum quickly became a bulletin board for vociferous criticism of all aspects of club functioning. By early 2006, club leaders had finally had enough, and the Forum suddenly disappeared.[https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/keelboat/2006-June/msg00114.shtml] It later reappeared, but now only administrators could make postings [https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/keelboat/2007-February/msg00002.shtml]; thus, it was no longer a Forum at all. These trials with the club's Forum highlight serious underlying issues for club management and demonstrate the level of censorship being exercised by these public university students/employees.
 == An Uncontrolled Environment ==