Hoofer Sailing Club Hosts Hands-On Rebedding and Fiberglass Repair with Dawn Mills

Members of Hoofer Sailing Club spent the evening of February 25, 2026, focused on practical maintenance as the club hosted "Fix it! Rebedding hardware and basic fiberglass repair (mock up w/audience participation)." The session put rebedding and simple fiberglass techniques at the center of instruction for University of Wisconsin–Madison student sailors.

Hoofer Sailing Club, the long-running University of Wisconsin–Madison student sailing organization, staged the workshop as part of its ongoing hands-on programming for student members. The club billed the session explicitly as a mock-up with audience participation, signaling a practical, take-it-to-the-boat approach rather than a lecture-format demonstration.

The event leader listed was Dawn Mills, identified in the program as a local technician. Mills guided the evening’s sequence of tasks drawn from the workshop title: rebedding hardware and basic fiberglass repair. The program materials and on-site setup emphasized physical practice on mock-up components so students could handle the tools and materials rather than merely observe.

Attendees worked through rebedding steps and basic fiberglass repairs on the mock-ups under Mills’s direction, aligning with Hoofer’s focus on transferable skills for student skippers and crew. The club’s use of mock-ups allowed participants to experience the tactile aspects of bedding chainplates and laying up simple fiberglass patches in a controlled environment before applying those skills on actual boats.

By running the workshop on February 25, Hoofer reinforced its role as a teaching venue for boat maintenance on the UW–Madison campus. The hands-on session led by Dawn Mills offered a direct, practice-first opportunity for student sailors to learn two common in-boat repairs that keep rigs and hulls serviceable between haul-outs. The evening’s format and explicit audience participation underscored Hoofer’s continued investment in practical seamanship training for its student membership.