Background: Mike McPherson posted a message on this forum titled "Rob
Dubin - watch for this scammer". I asked Mr. McPherson for more info
because I had never seen anybody actually attack a person in the Subject
line. After a couple of relatively vague answers, Mr. McPherson finally
provided the facts as he knows them. I personally know Rob Dubin and have
cruised with him throughout the Eastern Caribbean and the story that Mr.
McPherson provided did not ring true. As Ventana does not currently have
internet access, I sent Rob an email via hf radio with the messages posted
by Mr. McPherson on this newsgroup and by Mr. Nikacha on the SailNet board.
Rob responded and asked me to post his reply which I do so he

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To Mike McPherson et al. From Rob Dubin, s/v Ventana

I was recently made aware of some of the things being said about my wife and
me on this chat group and while I do not have internet access at the moment
I would like to respond as best I can via email. Specifically to Mike
McPherson's claim to have worked on my boat in Maeva Beach and to have
provided parts to me etc. Either someone impersonated me or Mr. McPherson is
out to trash someone he has never met. In either case he owes me a public
apology.

To be perfectly clear about this. I had no problem with my alternator in
April of last year. No one was ever on my boat to work on my alternator.
The entire story about someone bringing us parts etc, is totally and
completely false. None of what Mr. McPherson described EVER HAPPENED. This
is not a case of 2 sides to the same story. Mr. McPherson's story is 100%
fabricated. To my knowledge I have never met Mr. McPherson. I do not know
a boat named Boatsqueak nor do I ever recall hearing that name on any of the
radio nets. (I was a volunteer net controller on several radio nets both
last year and this year).

As an SSCA commodore I go out of my way to "leave a clean wake." In part
this means never leaving bad feelings behind you with the local population
and I defy Mr. McPherson to find ANY examples otherwise. I also attempt to
give back to the cruising community by writing articles for the SSCA
bulletin. There is no pay for writing for the SSCA bulletin. At my own
expense and with a considerable investment in my time I maintain a website
chock full of information to help those dreaming of cruising or those in the
process of outfitting a boat. (www.ventanasvoyage.com) Anyone who has ever
posted a query or comment to my website has received a personal reply.

While my business arrangement with Island Packet is really no one else's
business I will respond to Mr. Nikacha for the simple reason that those who
have taken my outfitting advice deserve to not be mislead by his statements.
Yes we received a discount from Island Packet and nearly 60 other
manufacturers whose products appeared in the video we made about outfitting
a cruising boat. Long after our boat and film were underway we were
approached by Practical Sailor who wanted to joint venture with us to market
the video. We told the manufacturers the video would get promotion from PS.
When Practical Sailor later realized the nature of our tradeouts they felt
their integrity had been compromised and they insisted we send out letters
to 60 manufacturers clearly stating PS was not involved. We sent the letter
they requested. We then proceeded with our video and 59 of the original 60
manufacturers chose to participate in the video.

We did not tell the manufacturers we would put them in video if they gave us
a discount. We told them quite specifically that we had selected their
product to be on our boat regardless of whether they gave us a discount or
not. We simply told them we would promote them well and it would be worth a
discount to be promoted in the video. Now after 8 years of cruising we are
still pleased with our Island Packet and how we outfitted it. Our
recommendations have sold a bunch of boats and lots of other products and I
consider this a win- win- win situation. The manufacturers have done well,
I have done well and those who followed our outfitting suggestions have
bought quality products that hopefully will help them enjoy their own boats.

I look forward to an explanation from Mr. McPherson and I will be happy to
respond to any questions regarding the above statements.

Rob Dubin
s/v Ventana


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So there you have it Messrs. McPherson and Nikacha...if you would like to
reply, I will be glad to act as relay to Ventana.

Regards-
Charlie