"NotPony" wrote

Bart,
What's your gripe with US SAILING? Sounds like a
personal issue.

You have made the correct assumption Steve.

There are lots of reasons I don't like US Sailing. My blood
boils when I think about it. They should change their name
to bogUS Sailing.

The main issue is a grievance I made to them a number of
years ago. US Sailing would not address my complaint, give
me a hearing on the matter, schedule a meeting on the subject,
or give me the refund I demanded.

They never put anything in writing. If you check bogUS Sailing's
By-Laws, there is NO process for instructors to file grievances.
It is the singular exception in the grievance process.

Foolish me! I never thought their management would want to
stifle the whole thing. Being a military man, I did not adapt
well to civilian life at first. I had come to expect much better,
a standard of excellence. I should have taken more aggressive
action immediately, but I honestly expected better of them.

Perhaps at first, bogUS Sailing simply didn't know how to handle
my complaint. Later it was probably easier to ignore me and
hope I'd go away. Certainly their were forces within US Sailing
that wanted to bury the incident and protect some of the people
involved.

Here is a brief summary of what happened and how it started.

I was taking a Coastal Passage Making ( CP) Instructor
Certification Course. This would simply allow me to sign the log
books of the students I was teaching in this subject.

During this course, I was harassed, put down, pushed off balance,
non-stop for a week simply because I stood up for my rights on
the first day. They were unable to bully me and I think that ****ed
the lead Instructor Trainer (IT) more than anything.

It was a clear cut case of bias, and blind stupidity. One "student"
happened to be the Naval Academy's Sailing Program Director.
He was taking the same course I was taking. From my perspective
though, he was another CP Instructor Candidate.

Here is what was going on behind the scenes.

US Sailing wanted to gain credibility. If the Naval Academy joined
their training program it would be a big boost for them. So they
greased it for this fellow--he was pre-selected to become an IT, and
the two ITs running the course, kissed his ass, made it easy for him,
didn't evaluate him, and offered him cigars. Meanwhile I was badgered
and humiliated, constantly put off balance, after I simply demanded
fair and equal rights.

He didn't want or ask for special treatment, yet he received special
treatment. I wanted to be treated fairly and was blasted like a
target in a shooting gallery and not treated fairly.

It started with a simple lottery for selecting berths on the yacht,
and I was punished for drawing the best remaining berth.

The IT announced he was taking the best cabin and told us to
decide amongst ourselves how to divide up the other berths.
We gave the one woman aboard the V-berth, and the rest of the
group decided to use a lottery format. I was lucky and drew the
aft port cabin. The Navy guy got the comfortable dinette berth
and the last guy drew the uncomfortable berth.

After making a big deal about letting us chose our own methods
of assigning bunks, the lead IT now told me I should cede my bunk
to the Navy guy--even though he had announced loudly that he was
perfectly happy with the dinette berth he drew. I declined the
suggestion. We drew lots--the matter was closed as far as I was
concerned.

Next I was taken aside privately in the clubhouse, this time by both
IT's. They sat me down in a tiny room isolated from the others.
This time the second instructor started pressuring me to cede my
bunk to the Navy guy. I pointed out we were both students. He
agreed. I stated I had equal right to the cabin, drew it in a fair
lottery. He stated I could make that point. He still said I should
give up my cabin but did not give me any valid reason to do so.

I refused to give it up. I fault myself for not going on the offense
at this point. Frankly I was confused about why they made an issue
of it. We followed the lead IT's suggestion to chose our own
method. It worked for us, so why did they care? It made no sense
to me, put me off balance, and was the beginning of my confusion
over the whole event.

Can you believe this sort of nonsense would happen? I laugh when
I think about it. You just can't make this stuff up!

The Lead IT was English. You know how the English love their
royalty. I think he viewed the Navy guy, who was an O-6
(Navy rank of Captain in the Reserves) as royalty. That was
exactly they way he was treated--like royalty.

Starting from that point the lead IT had it in for me. He made the
course into a daily hell for me. Any task I was assigned included
harassment, distraction, disruption, and rude patronizing comments.
How could I focus on the tasks at hand when I was constantly
fighting down the urge to push the guy overboard? I'm an easy
going guy. To set me off it takes a lot, and I was constantly being
push to the edge of my tolerance.

It seemed clear to me from the start the lead IT meant to flunk me
one way or another. His strategy worked. He did put me off and
my performance suffered. Right off the bat, I blew two backed in
docking approaches when he made sudden distracting motions at
the most critical instant of the maneuver. The slips were a little
tight--no sweat going in forward, but a narrow alleyway, and a
wide transom meant it had to be perfect to make it in.

When I fought back, he piled on me harder. I spent much of my
time thinking about where the next shot would come, rather than
the task at hand.

I could go on and on with you tons of examples. I was dinged
for not motoring down the exact center of max ebb of the Golden
Gate while the other boat sailed within a biscuit toss of the rocks on
the south side. Another time I brought the boat into the dock as
perfectly as it could possibly be done. It was a beautiful thing. So
what happened? I was dinged for shutting down the engine before
my three hands on the dock, holding me in position had cleated us
off. Talk about overkill. Three dock lines and the boat was stationary!
There was no forward motion, no current, and no wind. Where was
this coming from? A book? I felt sure this guy have never docked
under sail as it is not a big deal. I've sailed larger boats into slips in
such light conditions.

It was do this, do that, how come you haven't done this, while the
other guy had no pressure, a crew to help him, and GPS navigation
I was kept off balance constantly. The bottom line is I was set up
to flunk. And that is what they did to me.

The fellow who was head of the Naval Academy's sailing program
became an IT shortly after he completed the course. He later
changed my status to passing. That was nice of him, however, as
I thought about it, it ****ed me off further! I guess US Sailing
thought I'd be satisfied. No. The root problem remained and was
never addressed.

I have seen all sorts of things like this happen in other IT clinics.
I have little respect for the US Sailing IT's because they have no
quality control function to check unprofessional, or incorrect
behavior of the IT's. Without a feedback process that eliminates
and culls, rude, poor performing, or unfair IT's, the training program
will remain mediocre at best.

US Sailing's Training Program is run by a few sailing schools, who
put their own people in positions of power and together they control
the training program for their own financial benefit and to satisfy their
own egos and agendas. Some IT's are protected by virtue of the
relationships they hold with the sailing schools. People so entrenched
cannot be dislodged. The cure is to turn them over and create a
standards based process with performance feedback and the real
possibility that an IT will be removed and replaced with someone
better and more qualified.

What is left for me to do regarding bogUS Sailing? I'm thinking
about writing some editorials. US Sailing does not deserve our
support. They do not deserve the quasi-governmental position
they have, and they do not deserve being granted an unfair
competitive advantage over the American Sailing Association.

I have been looking for an independent film topic and it suddenly
occurred to me, my story would make a great topic for a film.

The film "Open Water" cost only $120,000 to make and grossed
$52 million. Panasonic makes a nice HD video camera for
about $10k. I think my story would be a winner. Most people don't
understand sailing, but they do understand, assholes with power,
bias, harassment, and conflict.

There is a lot more to my story. It would make a great screenplay--
easy to shoot, small cast, one or two boats and few props. The
stupid close-minded Englishman would make a great character study
that you would love to hate.

What would be a good title for the movie? My idea for a title is
"Contempt" or maybe "Five Sailors, One Asshole, and a Cover-Up".