kimhollamby
Well-Known Member
Finance answer
I don't believe myself to be a 'great chap' but I do like to be considered an honest one.
I do not speak for Sealine but suspect you could not do the same deal in the way in which it was structured. But on the other hand with the way MBM's marketing and boating cost budget was structured I couldn't, as an agent of the company I was working for, have engineered an equivalent deal to a private individual (ie financed through a deposit and mortgage).
So the deal was struck in a different way, on a kind of lease hire arrangement that is not usually available on purchases of that size via finance houses or anyone else. Read into that what you will. But I stand by all of my previous comments regarding the way in which we conducted our relationship with Sealine and it with us.
The boat was run as if under our ownership (in fact in order to keep it in good fettle I ran it as if under my ownership while I was editor). We cleaned it; we serviced it; we equipped it; we insured it; we moored it; we ran it. We wrote about it as if we owned it, not as if we had been given special favours. None were offered and in fairness to Sealine none were ever expected.
Perhaps the only other difference was that we did some of the snagging in the first season, rather than taking the boats back for the usual round of bits and pieces that is necessary for all new boats. I did it, partly because the boat was so busy we didn't have time to take it back and partly because I wanted to learn a bit more about faults that can occur and how to get them fixed. Sealine also got a report back on that which we voluntarily offered...but I'm not sure that's much of a favour because most owners tend to do that also these days, in one form or another.
I'm pleased to hear that you have been reading MBM for a long time and hope you continue to enjoy it. If you felt the Sealine was over-egged during my time as editor then I'm sorry we didn't have an opportunity to talk about it, but from my perspective I thought things had been kept in balance. One thing you hopefully enjoyed was the hands on feel of the mag and a lot of the time that had to do with the amount of hours we put in out on the water, as well as onboard in marinas chatting to readers -- having a boat available is therefore valuable and I personally hope that the magazines here will be able to continue to run their own craft for that purpose without it being seen as an overt sign of bias or even corrupt business practice.
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I don't believe myself to be a 'great chap' but I do like to be considered an honest one.
I do not speak for Sealine but suspect you could not do the same deal in the way in which it was structured. But on the other hand with the way MBM's marketing and boating cost budget was structured I couldn't, as an agent of the company I was working for, have engineered an equivalent deal to a private individual (ie financed through a deposit and mortgage).
So the deal was struck in a different way, on a kind of lease hire arrangement that is not usually available on purchases of that size via finance houses or anyone else. Read into that what you will. But I stand by all of my previous comments regarding the way in which we conducted our relationship with Sealine and it with us.
The boat was run as if under our ownership (in fact in order to keep it in good fettle I ran it as if under my ownership while I was editor). We cleaned it; we serviced it; we equipped it; we insured it; we moored it; we ran it. We wrote about it as if we owned it, not as if we had been given special favours. None were offered and in fairness to Sealine none were ever expected.
Perhaps the only other difference was that we did some of the snagging in the first season, rather than taking the boats back for the usual round of bits and pieces that is necessary for all new boats. I did it, partly because the boat was so busy we didn't have time to take it back and partly because I wanted to learn a bit more about faults that can occur and how to get them fixed. Sealine also got a report back on that which we voluntarily offered...but I'm not sure that's much of a favour because most owners tend to do that also these days, in one form or another.
I'm pleased to hear that you have been reading MBM for a long time and hope you continue to enjoy it. If you felt the Sealine was over-egged during my time as editor then I'm sorry we didn't have an opportunity to talk about it, but from my perspective I thought things had been kept in balance. One thing you hopefully enjoyed was the hands on feel of the mag and a lot of the time that had to do with the amount of hours we put in out on the water, as well as onboard in marinas chatting to readers -- having a boat available is therefore valuable and I personally hope that the magazines here will be able to continue to run their own craft for that purpose without it being seen as an overt sign of bias or even corrupt business practice.
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