There is no charge to access the Grand Banks Owners forum (at least not yet). The adminstrators are asking for voluntary donations to help defray the costs. I wasn't aware the target was $20K--- that does seem like an awful lot unless they figure that this amount will be sufficient to operate the forum indefinitely and they won't need any more money, ever.
One thing to keep in mind is that the Grand Banks forum administered by Bob Lowe and Frode is much more than just the forum itself. They also resurrected the popular but long-dormant GB Woodies site, which in itself is a large, interactive forum and data base, and included it on Grand Banks owners site.
They also maintain a sizeable library of owners and operators manuals for GB boats, engines, transmissions, etc. on the same website. For example, the complete operators and parts manuals for the Ford Lehman 120 are on the site and can be downloaded. There are numerous magazine articles from various publications over the years about GBs (including the first review of the first fiberglass GB36 in 1973). So there's a ton of "stuff" on this site besides just the owners forum, which is very similar in format to this one.
I have no idea how much hosting this kind of additional data, photos, PDF files, etc. adds to the cost of hosting the forum.
When the Oxford Yacht Agency had the Grand Banks dealership taken away from them by Grand Banks a few years ago the question was what to do with the owners forum they had been hosting. OYA no longer had any interest in hosting the forum, and when Grand Banks LLC approached them about taking it over they said fine.
The concern among a number of participants was that sponsorship by Grand Banks could alter the nature of the forum, with GB steering it more in the direction of a promotional tool for their new boats and away from the "how do I fix my 1969 steering gear" type of thing.
Grand Banks LLC said they would not do this but some of the participants said they had no reason to trust GB given their treatment of several long-time GB dealers in the name of reorganization. This gave rise to the acrimonious dialogue Charles referred to. Having seen much of the material written by both sides, I would have to say it was a tie.
For a variety of reasons, one of which was the negative perception of Grand Banks based on their statements, almost all the active participants in the OYA forum went over to Bob and Frode's "breakaway" forum. The fact they were also taking over and including the GB Woodies site was an additional draw.
A few of us have remained active in both forums. However the activity on the GB-sponsored forum is minimal. And so far I have seen no evidence of Grand Banks exerting any influence over the forum they sponsor (called GB Beacon).
My big disappointment is that--- for reasons I am not privvy to--- a key Grand Banks expert, Mike Negley, has so far declined to participate in the "new" Grand Banks forum. He posts only to the Grand Banks-sponsored forum, which is too bad because, like Bob Lowe, he is an incredibly experienced and knowledgeable person when it comes to GB boats. Those of us who monitor and participate in both forums still get the benefit of Mikes expertise and advice, but people who participate only in the new forum do not.