Oh well that must be it. Rob Dubin knows nothing at all about any of this.
Rob - If you really want to sort this out you could (a) send me back the
parts you walked off with or (b) send me the money you owe. But then again,
this is a total fabrication isn't it. I am a liar, Mr. Nikatcha is a liar,
Practical Sailor are a bunch of liars as are Island Packet. Funny how the
only thing you own up to is the part which can be independently verified.
No Rob and Charlie, the guys driving the taxis and other locals being
mistreated by Dubin are not going to write into this forum and probably
wouldn't know the name of the person who conned them even if they could.
The only thing that can be independently verified Dubin now confesses to and
I think that in and of itself is more than sufficient to indicate the man's
lack of integrity.. If he worked for the NY times (or any other reputable
media group) he would have been thrown out and become the laughing stock of
the industry. Let's take a look a Dubin's side of this verifiable portion
of his story.

I have now gotten a copy of Dubin's lame video thanks to a reader of this
group. In the video Dubin promotes specific products as if he has personal
knowledge of them and their performance. The idea presented in that these
have been carefully selected by Dubin based on his years of cruising
experience and represent only the best. Nowhere is there a mention of
donations in exchange for promotional consideration. Such a statement would
be considered a basic minimum by any reputable producer in any media.
Additionally, it is very likely that the way this video is presented, and
the lack of such a statement is a violation of law. It is intentionally a
VERY misleading video and that immoral at best and almost certainly illegal
when taken to this degree.

According to Dubin "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".

Problem #1 - Right Rob. How would they have even known about it? PS is not
in this kind of business.
Problem #2 - Dubin uses the Practical Sailor name to solicit more donations
from the manufacturers for his personal use. Hello! Does anyone but myself,
Mr. Nikatcha and Practical Sailor see a conflict of interest here?
Problem #3 - PS suddenly feels their "integrity had been compromised" by
their association with you? Why would this possibly be? Hadn't they come
to you? Hadn't you told them exactly what you were doing?
Problem #4 - "59 of the original 60 manufacturers chose to participate in
the video". How many of these companies had already shipped you their
products? By your own admission you already had the boat and were making
the video. Obviously you have received donations well before the
manufacturers were given the opportunity to back out.

Perhaps best of all is list of the many ways in which Dubin "gives back to
the cruising community".
1. He writes articles for the SSCA without pay. Of course you do. How else
are you going to be in a position to exchange positive comments in these
articles for discounts or free equipment from the manufacturers. This sure
helps out us cruisers - thanks a lot for all that effort.
2. At "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." I ask you all, is this one arrogant *&#$%#$* or what.
Worst of all, I think the guy is actually serious.

Last but not least, I think it might be worth contacting the SSCA to see how
they feel about their "Commodore"s using the SSCA name and position as a
sort of defacto endorsement of the promotion of particular manufacturers in
exchage for free equipment. Practical Sailor got ****ed for a reason. Nuff
said. And Rob - as for my $$$. Forget it. Finding out just what a serious
slim bag you are with all this video stuff was work 10x that amount.

Mike



"Charlie J" wrote in message
...
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