MacGregorSailors.com

Hi

thanks for all your kind responses. The container ship is apparently fully crewed and I was personally introduced to Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy

I take on board (sic) what you say about Dealer support, and in my original post I give full credit to the local HK importer. However

a. The local dealers have no experience of loading a Mac into a container - only of unpacking one, without engine etc.

b. The factory website explicitly refers to container transportation as a competitive advantage. This is equivalent to Ford describing a SUV as a "rugged off-road" vehicle and then standard-fitting it with slick tyres, or Hewlett Packard selling you on the flamboyant technicolor capabilities of their printers and then shipping them with only Black & White cartridges. Sure, i don't expect Macgregor to physically help with the logistics of transporting a secondhand boat - and neither would i expect the dealers in either Dubai or Hong Kong to be interested in helping - but it is surely not unreasonable to expect a response along the lines of "You need to fit all-terrain tyres such as Wranglers" or "Ask your local stockist for optional colour cartridge ABC123" or "Yep - you take the wheels and fenders off, drop the axle and make sure that the mast is lashed down tightly".


Entry-level cheapskate or not, i like the - just as I liked my before it, and yes I am brand-loyal - otherwise, why would I bother shipping it halfway around the globe? On the other hand, are we really to believe that these boats are fundamentally disposable items, such that when you've finished using one the only thing to do is buy a new one, otherwise nobody is going to be interested in helping you?

Finally, a word of warm thanks to Phillip; I would of course have PM'd you, but I wrongly concluded that the photos had probably disappeared because you too had probably disappeared. Clearly, I was wrong. thankyou for your patience.

From a profit margin perspective, we have bought boats without technical support, correct. OTHO, this board has taken over this aspect admirably.

absolutely correct; please will anyone who buya a Mac in preference to a Hunter therefore let me know they have done so, and I will split the marketing commission received from MacGregor with them 50:50

the point, surely, is this; on the website they tout container transportation as a reason to buy; if, in fact, this isn't possible, then that's a misrepresentation and opens the door to product liability. If it is possible, then it can hardly be a trade secret to explain how - either in the manual or on the website.

the simple fact is that Laura really doesn't care if the photos in the promotional materials and on the website are not representative of the boat you can actually buy; she doesn't care if the website claims 24mph, but in reality you would need a jet turbine and a small waterfall to achieve that speed; she doesn't care if the boat is unstable with the ballast out - it's your fault for dumping the water in the first place. She doesn't care, BECAUSE SHE ALREADY HAS YOUR MONEY

this is what we Brits call cynical

I dont think the factory website crosses the line to misrepresentation - it is marketing puffery, surely, but one has to do their due diligence and not rely solely on the web for a 35000 USD purchase.

I sense I am banging my head against a vested interest here; my apologies for wasting your time

I have no financial interest in the success of the Macgregor or any other company in the marine business...other than that of the perceived value of my personally owned

Magnetic

I beleive this was discussed here before their was an Assie on this site who bought an used mac in the USA & had it shipped buy container right to his house he had documented it here so it might be around some where on this site but I do beleive he had the same problem with help ! from the factory ! No Response ?
Anyway maybe one of the moderators can find it & post it hear for you

Anyway Dude nice to know your still around and enjoying life their Lad let us know how you make out & shame on you other guy's the guy is asking for help & advice !!

If he wanted constructive critisime he can go to his or anyone's Admiral ! for that ?

J
PS Hope this helps

I am sure there are shipping container companies all around the world that can build a crate for shipping a Mac , to be shipped anywhere you want for enough money. The idea of shipping our Mac across oceans to sail has crossed our mind too, but we will stick to trailering for now. As far as the MacGregor company I'm sure there busy making and shipping there new boats all over and really don't want the extra bussiness of shipping older boats. It would be like buying a new Ford car and after a year or so asking them to ship it overseas, I'm sure they would not even return your calls.

@ Highlander - Hi John - yes, Philip from Aus has already been in touch. I'll drop you an email when the boat arrives in HK.

@ Bubba - ok, I really will have to stop writing on this forum. else I will become uncharacteristically rude when it probably isn't warranted. Responding to your kind suggestions and comments as charitably as I can, I should unfortunately point out that trailering the from Dubai to Hong Kong is not really a weekend job, what with the Himalayas on one side and the aforementioned Indian Ocean on the other. These are foreign countries, thousands and housands of miles apart, with places like Iran, Afghanistan and lots of jungles in between, mud tracks, people who don't speak English, that kind of thing ... It's not nearly as easy as hooking up the Chevvy and belting off down Interstate 9. Maybe you've seen places like this on the evening news?

Of course the Macgregor factory don't want to ship secondhand boats; I wasn't asking them to - I wasn't even asking them to put me in touch with someone who could (at whatever expense). I was simply asking them to come good on their marketing spiel - specifically, the commment they make when comparing the to a Hunter, to the effect that it's a better boat because it fits into a standard container.

Of course I could pay a carpenter to build a non-standard crate and then ship it at extreme expense. I could maybe put it inside a really big envelope and ask UPS to deliver it, or maybe buy my own freighter to transport it across the seven seas whenever the fancy takes me. Or I could pay the very reasonable US$2,450 to ship it in a standard 40 ft container. All of these things are theoretically possible - only one of them makes it onto MacGregor's website. That's why I asked them. Are you with me this far?

Laura replied to my email; it would not have been any more difficult or time consuming for her to write "drop the axle off" than to respond as she did - she could even have said "sorry, I really don't know" or "maybe somebody on one of the Forum's could help you". But she didn't. Laura is repeatedly and consistently dismissive and rude, and this has been noted time and again on this Forum. The factory really doesn't give a damn, and I think that this is both unreasonable (given that they themselves made the assertion) and shortsighted (insofar as Customer Care really does lead to improved sales performace over time. A little courtesy goes a long way.

My boat, however, has now already gone a long way on its own, so I can afford to dispense with the courtesy and be rather more blunt; in response to your suggestion that "It would be like buying a new Ford car and after a year or so asking them to ship it overseas, I'm sure they would not even return your calls", if you had bothered to read what I had written - including the references to Ford - then you would realise that this is utter rubbish. They did return my (email), but I wasn't asking them to ship my boat. I was asking them for general advice on how to do so, given that they make the public assertion that it is possible and therefore presumably know. You can see that difference, can't you? You thought I was asking them to do something for me, in fact I was asking them HOW I could do it, because they had said in their advertisement that it was easily possible for an owner to do using a regular 40ft container, but without explaing how to do so. That's different, isn't it?

The correct analogy would be Ford telling you that - unlike their competitor's vehicles - their model car would fit in a standard parking lot; if it didn't - and the Mac on its trailer doesnt fit directly into a 40ft container without unbolting things - you mght perhaps expect them to explain why their sales promotional material said it did fit (or could be made to fit). You're not asking them to park your car for you, or provide a parking lot, or give you one-to-one instruction. You are just looking for a little helpful advice in the hope that you haven't been misled into buying something which doesn't do what the factory boasted it could do.

@Catigale - whatever! I was reflecting upon the fact that you appear to revert to your entrenched position of defending the factory's stance on each and every occasion. Of course there is no financial interest - how you could possibly be accused of making money out of something the factory failed to do escapes me. The fact is, as a moderator of this website, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect you to be slightly more constructive in your remarks, rather than mimicking the dismissive attitude shown by Laura.

That really is enough on this topic. Anyone who reads this and would like to find out how I managed to do it, and what the outcome was, please message me and I will willingly share the information with you in the spirit of camararderie and a common interest. No need to involve money, just basic civility and a degree of shared enthusiasm for our boats.

Mag

Im sorry we dont agree on this point, but if I were running the factory I would not support an owner attempting to transport a boat overseas in a container. That is a job for someone who does that routinely for a living, like an exporter. Pointing out the 'container ship advantage' in marketing material does not obligate the factory to support someone doing it.

I agree that it is never right to be dismissive and/or rude, but 'as posted time and time again here' is not sufficient to condemn anyone - obviously Internet Fora attract the attention of those with a bad experience and tend to be ignored by those with good - I experience this with my business and with the boat business in the past.

I am not a moderator on this site- I have been one in the past (2 years ago)

For safety - and to avoid the inevitable loneliness of such a lengthy ocean crossing - I have decided to shadow the Hyundai Longbeach merchant vessel as closely as possible. Whilst my own feeble AIS will almost certainly not be picked up by those few distant coastal stations dotting the indian Sub-continent, those of you who are genuinely concerned about my wellbeing - and, let's face it, there are many - can track that vessel, and thereby gain an approximate Lat/Long for my as it beats its way heroically towards its new oriental home - http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/datash ... &B1=Search and/or http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/datash ... =235068502

During recent side-by side theoretical trials on my laptop it has to be admitted that the container ship beats my hands-down under power (or in a head-on collision), but I suspect that, under sail it might be a far closer-run thing, and I expect us both to reach Hong Kong on 25th June more or less simultaneously...........