Do you really mean all that? My response to the "Why did Arny" thread

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Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Arny, You've got many many more supporters than doubters!
Your responses to all the "nasty" posts have been considered and polite. Probably more than I could have done. For this you get my thumbs up and respect
I think they are probably just jealous that you've had the balls to get up and do this. I've never done what you are undertaking, and I am jealous...but in a good way

Respect to you (and you family for the support I'm sure they are giving). Ignore the pratts and good luck with the rest of your challenge

If I'm around, I'l make an effort to meet you when you get round to the east coast.

Keep to your plans and keep it safe.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Arny

Some people are just to**ers. The only reaction I have had from people I have spoken to about your trip in that little boat is that you are probably crazy but good luck to you. It will be interesting to see what the long term effect of your raising the RNLI profile will be never mind all the money you raise.

Normal people will only support you, TO**ERS just have to find some thing to moan about because they dont have the balls to do it.

Good luck to you

Gary
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Arny, you are a top bloke and I admire your comittment to this project, it certainly is not just a freebie.

Hope the weather clears soon.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

[ QUOTE ]
Dear Arny, I know we dont always meet eye to eye on this trip. But pleae explain. As has been asked by others.

The trip is totally finnanced by youself, any money collected be it from sponcorship or dontions is to the RNLI. I hate to think the trip is just a freebee. Else it wold be ok to deliver my boat to Conwy free of charge, please explain.

[/ QUOTE ]

The website makes it pretty clear.

Companies can be an event sponsor, and sponsor a "leg" which will go towards fuel etc.
Donations will go to the RNLI.

dv.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Arny, I have been watching all the posts from the beginning.
You have done an immense amount of work on this for what I believe are the right reasons and personal satisfaction.
Lighten up now, and start enjoying yourself. This should be pleasure as well and you arent going to get the chance to enjoy it again.
This site is like my daughters phone. Kids will say almost anything to each other in text which can be rude,hateful,jealous. Put these people in the same room where non written and non verbal communication can shine tthrough and they probably arent half as bad or bold!
Loads of people are quietly supporting you ,far more than the loud minority who enjoy controversy and a snipe. Some good questions have been asked though and they have been equally well answered by yourself.
Lets see the pleasure and pride coming through in your next post.
Good luck Simon.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Add me to the list of people that think you are doing a great job raising money for the RNLI, you can never hope to please all the people all the time - just some of the people some of the time, and thats a pretty damn good achievement.

Well done
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Thanks for every one of your well wishes... I can't respond to them all I am afraid but I do want to respond to the question put by hlb as I know it is one that comes up a lot when regarding this event.

So, the short answer to your question is I am paying for part, the sponsors are paying the rest and the RNLI donations ALWAYS go to the RNLI and is not paying for any of it.

The long answer follows...

When I approached the RNLI for their blessing on the trip, back in January, they were only willing to support me so completely because of a number of points:

1) I had planned it to a standard they believed was adequate to ensure its safe execution as much as is possible with a boating event.
2) I had adequate training and experience
3) The boat was properly equipped for such an journey
4) It was NOT going to be funded out of RNLI donations.

There were other issues but they were the main ones.

Regarding the funding I pledged to them, as I do to everyone else, that I will not fund any of the trip with donations. I pledge that to you and to everyone else now.

To fund the trip I wanted corporate sponsors. I have an MBM article at the end in which all sponsors will be listed, I have a good web site with over 1000 visitors (not hits) a month visiting and I have various media opportunities on route which sponsors could make use of is they wish. There was also space on the boat for branding. So I felt that I had a good enough offering for the amount of sponsorship I was after... just £200. I honestly thought I would have absolutely no problem selling all 22 legs plus getting title sponsorship that would ensure the funding was secured. Not so. I completely under estimated the feeling towards the trip from corporates. Yes I have got some and I am truely grateful to them, but I got no where near enough to cover all the costs. I am still about £1000-1500 short and yes, I am covering the shortfall myself.

So, will it be worth the money spent... yes for sponsors that is certain IMO... they will get the exposure they want. As for the rest... well yes for me I suppose. I will get the experience of a life-time and at a price my wife and I can afford but without the sponsorship we already have we could afford it but I certainly would have chosen to spend that kind on money on the trip and so it wouldn't have been done at all. In that sense the sponsors are truely enabling the trip to go ahead because without them it wouldn't have. For the RNLI? yet to see... I could have just given the money to RNLI instead of spending it on fuel etc but where is sense in that when I thought I could turn that £4000 sponsorship into £10k, £20k+ RNLI donations... At the moment it isn't looking good in that respect I have only raised about £1000 actually for the RNLI and that needs to go up several fold before I consider it a financial success for them. If I can't raise at least £10k as funds directly to the RNLI then I shall be very disappointed. I know many people donate when the event is finished and so I am not despondent yet but I would have thought that there would have been more donations by now... that is my misjudgement I suppose.

Hlb, and anyone else... if you still doubt me and want to find out more about the RNLI's view I am sure that the fundraising manager or PR manager that has been overseeing me throughout the past 5 months would be glad to have a chat. It is in their interest that the public is clear on how any RNLI fundraising events are funded if the public is to have confidence in donating. PM or email me and I will gladly forward contact details.

I hope that is an adequate answer to your question.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Simon, I am enjoying it immensly and extremely proud of what I have done already. In fact, the trip from Padstow to Milford Haven, as I said on my web site, was probably the best boat trip I have even had... it was challenging, it was safe, it had dolphins and porpoises it had good weather and not so go and apart from the RNLi THAT is why I am doing it... for experiences like that.

However, I have been defending myself and the event for 5 months now to so many people both on the forum and off that I think I am just getting tired of doing so. I really just want to get on with it but I feel a HUGE responsibility to my sponsors and supporters to make it good for them too hence the intense web posting on the web site and until recently here.

You are right... I think I will have to chill out more and concentrate on the task at hand... the safe passage and the raising funds and awareness of sea safety for the RNLI and enjoying the experience... I will never be doing this again so I must enjoy it regardless of everything... and I will I am sure.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Perhaps all those who criticise would like to list what THEY have done to improve the lot of others?

Good on you Paul. If you're still in MH, give the MRCC a ring and I'm sure they'll welcome you in for a coffee - 01646 690909.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thr

Pity you decided not to call into Liverpool in the 2008 Capital of Culture year, as everything newsworthy seems to be getting maximum press coverage at the moment.
Good luck with the trip.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Arny,
the vast majority of us are supporting you without question, by the nature of forums some people will post or will infer certain things that they may not always say to you face to face. Dont let it get you, just carry on, your doing a sterling job.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Good luck Paul! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

Hello Arny

I believe your trip will be a great adventure and I wish you nothing but success and calm seas.

I have found myself that this forum can have its more difficult users - I have asked for advice and been subjected to "you should know that" type responses. I have also found people to be generous and ready to help - including the notorious GC1.

I have followed several of the most recent threads on your trip without comment. It seemed to me that the thread you are commenting on asked an intersting question - namely your choice of stops, and whether these would generate the most donations for the RNLI. I imagine that you could have stopped at every marina and port on the way round to increase your exposure to the public but would then have had to schedule the trip for months if not years, so a balance has to be found.

I suppose I was a little disappointed in the exchange with HLB when he made the point that when making passages of any distance, you take the weather when you can, which you appeared to challenge. Within a day or so that was what you said you would be doing. I do not think any of us expect you to go out when conditions are not right but I am sure most of us who cruise always do take advantage of fair weather windows. Haydn is never short of an opinion, but I think on this occasion he was only making a fair point which, because it was Haydn, you seemed to jump on.

As others have said - it's time to chill. You are where you are and have to look forward and do what you know is best for you.

In your current thread you say

[ QUOTE ]
I completely under estimated the feeling towards the trip from corporates.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was interested in the surprise that this appears to have caused you. Surely there must be a fairly limited number of potential sponsors from the marine trade (or elsewhere) who will be willing and able to sponsor particularly because of commercial factors that will influence them. For example, a boat builder other than Jeanneau or an engine manufacturer other than Suzuki is not going to be interested, and once you have one electonics manufacturer or other marine kit on board then there is a limit to the sponsorship that will follow from others.

The inevitable uncertainty of when you will be in a particular port would also possibly affect leg sponsors trying to tie in their press releases to coincide or make arrangments to be there to meet you for PR purposes.

These comments are not intended to be negative, but are the thoughts of someone who has to make decisions on sponsorship and charitable donations for our company. I won't sponsor an event where a larger rival is already involved.

I am sure that you will continue to seek to build the profile for your trip in the general media which is key to raising the public's awareness. Unlike corporates who will need to see some benefit, the public will respond, I am sure. It would not be lost on many that the Round Britain Race is going to be following you shortly with generally high speed, well sponsored and expensive machines in comparison to your "people's boat".

So good luck to you.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

[ QUOTE ]
I was interested in the surprise that this appears to have caused you. Surely there must be a fairly limited number of potential sponsors from the marine trade (or elsewhere) who will be willing and able to sponsor particularly because of commercial factors that will influence them.

[/ QUOTE ]

An interesting point. Valid as far as large corporates are concerned, where sponsorship is handled by the marketing dept. and has to be accounted for in terms of cost/benefit performance, but in small and medium size businesses the decision to sponsor (or make a corporate donation to a charity / cause) or not is usually taken by the principal(s), and is frequently a private indulgence.

Certainly in my case, I have sponsored Arny through one of the businesses of which I am a director, which has no marine connection - I have sponsored because I am interested in boating & the RNLI, and I have used that sponsorship to lever a bit of corporate publicity in return, which has "paid" for the sponsorship. Many of the posters in the mobo forum are principals of small / medium sized businesses, that's how they can afford those big flashy mobos. They have an interest in boating and therefore in the RNLI. Whether they publicise the sponsorship to say "hey, I've fulfilled some corporate social responsibility" or not is optional, but I'm surprised that so few of the wealthier managing executive mobo forumites have sponsored legs of RoundBritain - it's not as if Arny is asking for a lot of money, it's peanuts really.

IMO FWIW
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread

That's a fatuous statement. I'm quite sure that many forumites contribute heavily to charities and good causes but don't want to make a song and dance about it
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thr

[ QUOTE ]
That's a fatuous statement. I'm quite sure that many forumites contribute heavily to charities and good causes but don't want to make a song and dance about it

[/ QUOTE ]
My favourite charity used to be HMRC but I'm sorry to say I've stopped supporting them /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thr

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's a fatuous statement. I'm quite sure that many forumites contribute heavily to charities and good causes but don't want to make a song and dance about it

[/ QUOTE ]
My favourite charity used to be HMRC but I'm sorry to say I've stopped supporting them /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Ha reminds me of that Bob Hope gag where he said " I like to come to Washington so I can visit my money" /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Seriously Arny should take a chill pill and LISten to what others might have to say. He admitted he can be difficult and this has come across in his repost to HLB and others. Noone doubts that raising funds for the RNLI is a good cause. Many of us donate to the RNLI and CHOOse different ways to donate. I don't think anyong needs to justify themselves. I wish Arny luck and I hope his take for the RNLI picks up.
 
Re: Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thr

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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