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View Poll Results: Do you have a beanbag seat aboard your boat?
Yes I do and it's a Freebag. 1 2.38%
Yes I have another brand. 9 21.43%
I wish I had one. 15 35.71%
No. 17 40.48%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 42. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 13-06-2015, 17:12   #1
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Thumbs up Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

We're really excited that Norwegian company, Freebag AS, is now offering their products in the USA through the Schooner Chandlery marketplace!

The Freebag for Yachting, at $97 USD is already offered at a discount to the EU pricing. Further, there's a sale between now and mid-July at $87 for people who pre-order. Please check out the Freebag for Yachting at this link and pre-order yours today!

The product was developed by Norwegian yachtsmen to increase comfort and endurance on long voyages in rough waters. Freebag today is commonly used by people trying to find comfortable and relaxing positions in boats and on the rocky beaches of Scandinavia. Freebag® boat cushion incorporates a patented design and is a lightweight, multifunctional water repellant cushion / bag. The lightweight (weighs only 2 pounds) Freebag® has a coated textile outer shell that encases a removable inner bag made of nylon. The "beans" are made of polypropylene and do not compress over time the way normal bean-filled bags do.

Check out the product video here, too!
The first one, Freebag for Yachting, the later two for construction and medical use.


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Old 23-06-2015, 17:27   #2
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Thanks for the heads up, those look awesome
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Old 28-06-2015, 04:40   #3
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Wildwill, we're looking forward to them arriving here in the USA. My husband, cat, and I will stop fighting over which of us gets our lone beanbag while we're underway! We can each have a new freebag and leave our cat with her favorite spot made of our old beanbag seat that a friend made for us.

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Old 13-07-2015, 20:33   #4
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

An update for everyone--you need to order within the next 2 days to get the pre-order pricing for Freebag. It is a savings of $10 off the regular price. They may choose to continue the sale price, but I'm not sure about it. This is the link to the Freebag store on the SC Site https://schoonerchandlery.com/store/freebag/
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Old 18-07-2015, 13:14   #5
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Great, my cats have now seen the photo - now I'll HAVE to buy one or they'll never stop whining "well 'Schooner's' cat has one ... why can't we - meow, meow etc.". But all seriousness aside, looks great - and I've had the 30 day - rigid polly cushions - weary butt experience to admire the thoughtful solution. Will follow up with an order in due time. And your tabby appears to be a "Maine Coon cat", talk about a seafaring heritage, I'll bet wharf rats (either type) don't even dare come near the boat (LOL). (I used to own a 'Maine Coon', but who actually owned whom was a matter of some dispute, come to think of it).
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Old 20-07-2015, 07:27   #6
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

LOL. Beryl is a spoiled Norwegian Forest Cat. Slightly different body shape and head shape than MCC and a bit more outgoing personality (we've had both NFC and MCC over 30 years so know both breeds well).

Our lone non-Freebag beanbag has been through a lot aboard the boat and the big thing we're looking forward to with the Freebag is the different material of construction of the beads -- polypropylene-- it doesn't compress like our other beanbag with polystyrene beads and it can get drenched w/o worries of not drying out properly. Beryl will inherent the non-Freebag as her very own (inside use) beanbag.

If you've ever been on passage in big seas, you know how nice it is to have a beanbag or other cushions to wedge yourself into a spot and let the beanbag keep you there rather than you working just to stay in one spot. Before we started ocean sailing, I really didn't understand why so many cruisers had beanbags aboard their boats. It didn't take long to "get it."
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Old 13-08-2015, 17:06   #7
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Visit our site to see the video of the Freebag in use (top video on this page: https://schoonerchandlery.com/more/freebag/

Buy yours on the site here: PRODUCT page

The first shipment arrived and folks are enjoying their use of these boating beanbags. I learned from one user that since the Freebags are very buoyant and drain nicely, she uses her Freebag instead of a pool noodle when floating around her boat in Florida waters. Another user replaced her 10 year old ones that were getting a little scruffy with new ones for kayaking. In addition to on-boat use, they have many other uses.

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Old 15-08-2015, 08:14   #8
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

I just bought two of these and they just arrived. They are interesting but I must comment they are VERY narrow. Not made for wide Americans if you know what I mean. However I think I will find several uses for them on my boat and or other outings which is what they are also good for.
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Old 15-08-2015, 08:55   #9
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Just received the Free Bag that I bought under the IPO deal. I was pretty surprised as to how small it is. About half the size I expected. I am a narrow bodied American so it will work for me OK I think. I have not had a chance to really see how it will work underway. The size thing is a plus/minus as some bean bags are so big they take up too much room. I'll have to see if the small size is a problem over time. If you are a big person I don't think you will like this, or may be even if you are a medium person.

It is very well made and extremely light. I hope the filler lasts a long time for the price I paid. I do like the shape of it. It could be useful as a carry-around chair like in the video if the circumstance comes up.

I did have to pay a foreign transaction fee which I did not expect since I thought I bought it from an American company.

If it works out I might consider buying a second as it can be very handy on passages or even just lounging around the deck. I would be more likely to buy it is it were much cheaper though. My advice is for the company to offer a bigger version at the price of the one I bought and lower the price of the smaller one. But I'm a cheap sailboater.....
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Old 15-08-2015, 11:59   #10
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Quote:
Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum View Post
Just received the Free Bag that I bought under the IPO deal. I was pretty surprised as to how small it is. About half the size I expected. I am a narrow bodied American so it will work for me OK I think. I have not had a chance to really see how it will work underway. The size thing is a plus/minus as some bean bags are so big they take up too much room. I'll have to see if the small size is a problem over time. If you are a big person I don't think you will like this, or may be even if you are a medium person.

It is very well made and extremely light. I hope the filler lasts a long time for the price I paid. I do like the shape of it. It could be useful as a carry-around chair like in the video if the circumstance comes up.

I did have to pay a foreign transaction fee which I did not expect since I thought I bought it from an American company.

If it works out I might consider buying a second as it can be very handy on passages or even just lounging around the deck. I would be more likely to buy it is it were much cheaper though. My advice is for the company to offer a bigger version at the price of the one I bought and lower the price of the smaller one. But I'm a cheap sailboater.....
Hi there,

Freebag is a Norwegian company selling directly to customers via the USA based Schooner Chandlery marketplace. How it works is you're buying from the company directly, but Schooner Chandlery receives a small (3%) marketplace commission on items sold. It is similar to Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, and other marketplaces.

Most of the Schooner Chandlery sellers are in the USA but right now we do have sellers in Canada, the UK, Norway, and Australia. Customers are world-wide. Items are priced in USA dollars and the charges should be made in USA dollars by the credit card processing company unless you are in the country of the seller (in this case, Norway) at which time, the transaction would take place in your common currency. Please send me a PM about your order (or send a support request to Schooner Chandlery via the site with your order number) and we will look into this a bit more for you.

I'm interest to hear about the "narrow" size/shape issue since I'm one of the more generously endowed American women. I have had problems with some other seating not being quite right for that reason, but not the Freebag.

Funny about big vs small -- Freebag actually produced a SMALLER version of the Freebag for the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race about a decade ago. The smaller size was requested by the race organizers. That product instantly became a success and is now the Industrial use Freebag that we show on our site but it isn't yet available in the USA. We're getting a test shipment in soon. We're looking forward to offering it here in the USA for boat workers as well as construction workers. If you take a look at the link here, you can go to the product videos -- see the industrial one -- and see how that one is used as a seat, kneepads, etc. My husband took a look and said he'd love to have one for use crawling around and laying on the ribs/floors of our boat when working on things in/around the engine compartment.

Regarding the beans lasting and not compressing -- we've chatted with some of the long-term Freebag customers who were very excited to buy new ones -- they state their old Freebags that they've had for many years work like new with the beans not degrading but they were seeing wear on the casing and the Freebags were not looking like new. It seems like the people who had them from the time Freebag sold them many years ago at a boat show are the ones who are buying the most in a single order now. They're often making orders of 4 Freebags each. I took that as a good sign of the quality and performance. One person, buying 4 Freebags to replace their old ones, told us they never did put cockpit cushions into their Beneteau because of the Freebags they'd bought years ago.

Price--yes, I'm a penny-pincher myself and it is always hard to spend from the cruising kitty. It sounds like you and I are similar. One of the Freebag customers called in her cc # to me and we chatted about her planned use. She owned a couple Freebags some years ago but had none now and she had replaced her Freebags very recently with a West Marine cushion that cost $115 ea but started falling apart already. Thus, she just bought two more Freebags with hopes that they will last longer than the other competing product.

FYI, these cushions sell for about 30%-40% more in Europe than the intro price they sell for here in the USA. To help a friend looking for replacements for her Freebags, we reached out to Freebag to ask if they'd like to sell via the Schooner Chandlery marketplace. That's when we learned that they had some USA customers who were paying the Europe price even though there was, of course, a huge shipping charge, customs, duty, etc. The company was very happy to be able to offer Freebag in the USA, via Schooner Chandlery, with more affordable fulfillment methods for their USA customers. If you know of other international marine product companies who need affordable USA-based fulfillment methods, please send them to us--we may be able to help them with USA fulfillment too.

We are glad that the Freebag company is offering a discounted price to customers in the USA at this time but are pretty sure the prices will be going up rather than down. USA consumers right now are actually getting pretty much the equivalent of a wholesale price on the Freebags. I'm not really sure how much longer they'll continue to offer them at the low introductory price since popular but more poorly constructed and less comfortable boat cushions are more costly.

Some people--who already know the product--are purchasing them for use on power boats and kayaks so it seems the appeal for these products is broader than just sailboats. At Schooner Chandlery, we're just really happy to be helping another cruiser's (ah, yes, the owner of Freebag IS a cruiser too) business grow.

Fair winds, Brenda
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Old 17-08-2015, 08:50   #11
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Brenda,
All well and good. I did get charged a $2+ foreign transaction fee, for whatever reason. I did not expect that and it seems you did not either. But there it is. Not worth my time to work it to get it back.

The bag is very small, not just to me but to others who have seen it. I am 6' tall but very "lanky". It just barely covers my butt. It could not possibly cover a larger plus size person. It will probably work just fine for me and my wife though. I don't think it will for larger people. Perhaps I got one of the special small ones by mistake? Sounds like I didn't from your comments.

I will get good use of it though. I do not want a really large size since it has to be stowed when not in use so that is good for me. I don't see myself using it as a "mattress" in the cockpit as it would not be wide enough.

Kudos to Schooner Chandlery in setting up your business the way you are. I hope all goes well with you. I am not unhappy with my purchase. If you think the market will bear a bigger price go for it. I would not pay more myself.
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Old 17-08-2015, 10:38   #12
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

Thanks for your comments, exMaggieDrum. I will look into the exchange fee from my end since that is surprising. You are purchasing from Freebag, not Schooner Chandlery, so I will also pass this along for them to look into as well.

This is a popular European product that we're very happy to enable USA sailors to easily again buy here in the USA.

Fair winds,
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Old 18-08-2015, 18:17   #13
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

My sore bum wants want one of these in Oz. Anyone know who would ship there?

Cheers, Graeme
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Old 18-08-2015, 18:46   #14
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

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My sore bum wants want one of these in Oz. Anyone know who would ship there?

Cheers, Graeme
We've chatted with a couple folks on that -- suggest you put a product enquiry on the Freebag page of the Schooner Chandlery site as that will go straight on to Freebag. https://schoonerchandlery.com/shop/misc/freebag/ I don't know what your import duties would be, but feel free to PM me your postal code/address and I can tell you the USA to AU shipping would be. They have Freebags here and, of course, in Norway but it does seem the shipping from USA is better than from Norway. Cheers
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Old 20-08-2015, 09:21   #15
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Re: Freebag "beanbags" in the USA

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I did get charged a $2+ foreign transaction fee, for whatever reason. I did not expect that and it seems you did not either. But there it is. Not worth my time to work it to get it back.
Hi there, I contacted Stripe, the processing company we use for all transactions and asked about the charge since there can be a 2% fee if seller and buyer don't share the same currency. This is paid by the seller, not the buyer so we were perplexed. Stripe looked into our SC international transactions and came back with this info:


"we had a look into it and confirmed that the 2% is invisible to the end customer — we add it on when we convert the fees. So, if the customer was seeing an extra 2%, it's likely that it is in fact their bank adding an international fee or some equivalent. This type of fee is actually dependent on the user's bank/card."

So it seems this is a charge by your own bank. It seems very odd because Stripe (a USA company) has already done the currency conversion and charges your bank in dollars--therefore your bank has no international transaction to deal with. Because we were curious about this, we made several test purchases using our various bank's credit cards to try and re-create the fee you saw but could not do so -- our 2 banks and a credit union don't charge such a fee. The Stripe employee also reminded me that you may be seeing a $2 fee for using a debit card. This would also be an ordinary fee from your own bank, not our processing company, Stripe.

Thank you for alerting me to this issue and I'd appreciate it if you would PM me your order number or send the same in a support ticket in at Schooner Chandlery so we can track it down for certain. We can put a note to buyers into our Buyer Guidelines or the checkout process if we can ascertain what kind of fee you may be paying to your bank.

Fair winds
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