[Anonymous]

And just to prove you can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time here is an extract of an e mail I have just received totally by coincidence from the Advertising Manager of the Moody Owners Association “Compass” magazine.

“I hope I can approach you for help on this subject. I must say I like the look and feel of the BOA website….. “

All down to personal choice then I suppose!

[Anonymous]

@Sundance wrote:

Ian
I have exchanged e mails with Dolcetto …

And that’s another gripe! I am not Dolcetto, but the forum rules say I must use my boat name as an ID. Why?

Nigel

[Anonymous]

Nigel
I have to be honest all this whinging is now becoming a bit boring.
Perhaps I can remind you of your e mail sent to me on 11th August, the day you joined the BOA, asking for your Username to be “Dolcetto”.
Regards.

[Anonymous]

Just returned from 4 weeks holiday and entered the forum to see if anything of interest to me and found this post.
Why do we want more use of the site?
The forum is a working tool for those members with a problem or question to seek help from fellow members. Open it up to every crackpot on the internet and we will not be able to find the information we are seeking amongst the rubbish that will be posted and it will no longer come from sensible fellow Bavaria Owners.
This is not a site for Internet Nurds, its for us sailors who are too busy out on the water sailing.
If more Bavaria owners had problems they could not resolve then the site would see more use. It is credit to the Bavaria Mark and the ability of members to resolve their technical problems that there is limited use.
IF ITS NOT BROKE DON’T FIX IT!

[Anonymous]

I joined the BOA forum when I bought my B30C and although that is less than a complete year ago, I have posted almost 50 posts. My posts have invariably been seeking advice, which I must say has been promptly received. Occasionally I have shared some info, usually gleaned from experience or more likely others.
Having spent what I have on the boat purchase and on subsequent essentials (toys) I can’t imagine why £15 is such an issue. Ok, I understand that we might get more idle chat about non-boaty subjects and other boat types, but I for one am not looking for that from this forum as there are several other forums that indulge in posting for postings sake.
End of tuppence worth!

Anyway, more importantly, how did all our Clyde/West Coast of Scotland members boats fare during the recent blow ? Paranoid as I am, I doubled up my lines before the blow started and have been informed by the marina staff that all is well.

[Anonymous]

I’m interested in this topic since it touches on some important elements of (my) BOA membership. For me, although I bought my Bav40 new in the UK in 2001, about 4 years ago I sailed it down south to the Basque country for a couple of years and it’s now in Perpignan, France. So, much of the BOA social focus is not really open to me. For general boaty chitter chatter, there are other more diverse forums and so I don’t really think it’s a worry if the BOA one is not terribly active, in terms of posting numbers.

So, for me, reference content and very welcome advice from fellow owners is my main interest in being a member. Although there is lots of info, it is rarely enough (for me anyway!) and I mean no disrepect to the small number of people who have bothered to add to the info store (all credit to the core of names that appear) ..This isn’t a complaint!

I’m sure we all agree that the Bav owners manual is not the most useful, detailed document in the world but at least every BOA member probably has one. Why not appeal to members to have these scanned and loaded onto the site, searchable by model and age? Suddenly, a lot more info might be available. Are there those people within BOA savvy enough about the model changes year on year (Bavaria do release new versions very frequently) to list what these changes are? Could anyone write a review of the test reviews (to avoid copyright issues)? Finally, surely there exists someone somewhere, (even in Bavaria itself) that has a description and model number for pretty much every part on a standard Bav. Ideally, and I accept I’m in letter-to-father-christmas mode here, I’d like to select say my model, see a plan, zoom into the area I’m interested in and see the descriptions of the parts, perhaps with a Bav part reference. Further, since so many Bavaria parts are fitted from other manufacturers (eg Lewmar, Raymarine, Elvstrom, Eberspacher, Volvo etc), it should be possible to access more details of such parts that are relevent to Bavarias from these suppliers. By the way, one advantage of at least the Hints and Tips reference section of the site being closed to allcomers might be that such manufacturers, including Bavaria itself, might be more willing to share a bit more information with the BOA.

Every major marina in the UK has boat fixers of various sorts from sailmakers, engine repairers, to riggers and general repairers. Surely many of these have experiences of bavs to tell and would be willing to share, at least for a bit of publicity? Look at the furore over corroding seacocks…I’d like to know what type mine has (though most have been changed in recent years, mainly because they seized!). So, it’s not necessarily new content that needs to be written, just existing stuff with a few observations/facts about how it relates to Bavarias. I’d also quite like to know about typical depreciation and whether it’s a myth (or not!) that Bavs depreciate faster than many other brands (setting aside the number that have a harder life as charter workhorses).

Although I speak enough french to get by, I’ve found it really difficult to get work done in France, apart from just not having the vocabulary for unusual items. This is largely because, the boat is there, and I’m here, and I’ve struggled trying to get info on for example, the common rudder bearing issue (where without doubt, there’s more info on the ybw site and some US ones), teak deck re-caulking, ST60 wind vanes, replacement heads mirrors, hatch blinds, new replacement flexible pipe connection for the dreadful Techimpex cooker – the list goes on. A site that had a ton of stuff relevent to bavs would make it easy for me to justify an annual fee ten times the current rate. I don’t think I’m that unusual, in general terms.

I don’t want to come across as anti-social (I’m not honestly!) but I know how much effort goes into organising a rally (and as this year, re-scheduling them..) and so I wonder whether BOA has the mix of effort right across its doubtless small band of volunteers and whether a shift to information might provide a greater impact and be a bigger reason for members to join and stay. Given the number of Bavs in circulation, I’m surprised that the membership isn’t far greater.

I’m not sure why the OP got so aerated about the site not being open. I notice the rebel one he set up is hardly a hive of activity either. But I do have some sympathy for his point though, I’d prefer it if the BOA site became a reference library rather than say a Tesco, where repeat footfall is a metric of success. It’s the value of relevant info that matters, not the traffic.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Well said that man/woman (Abouttime)
Hope your christmas list is granted 😆

[Author]

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