Who is really the troll?
Stop right there. It`s enough for me to say: Please Go Away.
TF is no place for self confessed trolls and boat marketers. No good can come from combining the two. The death spiral of your subsequent posts put it beyond doubt.
Please Go Away.
When I identified myself as a "troll," I was being ironic. I gave my real first and last names and stated my agenda in full transparency, not a troll thing to do. Then I made some observations about the nature of the boat building industry that apply generally as well as specifically.
Several folks, especially someone who goes by the anonymous handle BandB, launched longwinded, heated attacks on me personally. All that a casual visitor can know about this guy is that he's spends A LOT of time posting to have achieved more than 18,000, that he likes SeaRays and really, really hates Great Harbor trawlers and its founder Ken Fickett.
So who is really the troll here?
The person whose name you know (and can Google) or the people with handles that hide both their true identities and whatever qualifications or lack thereof they have to make their comments?
I fear she is not "on my side," but at least we know who Miz Trom really is based on her handle and willingness to post her boat's name and a picture of her and her husband in her public profile. She is a rare critic here who is not skulking behind anonymity. Kudos. See you on the water, brave lady.
I challenge all you undercover critics who so venomously disdain Great Harbour to have the courage of your convictions. Tell the boating world who you are and your background, so others can assess your credibility.
You already know my name, though BandB has been pretty incurious about my background other than as a "paid troll," but here is some more for you.
1. I'm a New Englander from Cape Cod with 54 years of experience on the water.
2. I have a 50-ton master's license (in abeyance until my next test).
3. I was a 25-year, career newspaper reporter and editor of New Hampshire's statewide Sunday paper.
4. I cruised in a 30-foot sailboat from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean. I live aboard a bigger boat now.
5. For the past 20 years I have written for most of the major boating magazines, including Yachting, PassageMaker, Power & Motoryacht, SAIL, Soundings and Trade Only.
6. I have won most of the writing award categories in the boating niche.
7. I was editor-in-chief of PassageMaker, the trawler magazine.
8. I recently retired as seminar manager for Trawlerfest and was producer or co-producer of several courses on boatersuniversity.com.
9. I was onboard for the Oman-to-Suez leg of the Nordhavn Around the World voyage (Yes, great boats, great company, great people).
10. I was onboard for the Nordhavn Transatlantic Challenge, too.
11. As a sideline, I have made numerous deliveries under power and sail, the longest being 4,500 nautical miles from Florida to Ensenada, Mexico, (just south of San Diego) through the Panama Canal. Also two other Pacific deliveries: San Diego to San Francisco and Dana Point to Anacortes, Washington.
That's me. Who the heck are you, BandB? Are you Brandy or are you Benedictine? And why should a visitor to this page take you seriously?
The rest of you should come out of the shadows too. In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day:
Come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won your medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra