SAILNET Message Board

[GordMay]

New Wind for AirForce Sails ~ SailJazz Press Release

(Chalreston, SC) AirForce Sails www.airforcesails.com is under new ownership, having been acquired by Cheryl Boyle and Sam Levin. The maker of quality coastal and blue water sails, the sail loft was rescued from the recent SailNet bankruptcy by its new owners and is now back in business. Part of that reopening is an alignment with SAILjazz, www.sailjazz.com, a rapidly growing online sailing community and content-based website founded by Cheryl and Sam Boyle after their departure from SailNet in late 2004. "Buying a sail online has never been easier," says Cheryl Boyle. "It's extremely satisfying to have the opportunity to recover AirForce Sails and see it fulfill customer's needs for quality sails at reasonable prices."

Cheryl and Sam Boyle founded SailNet in 1994. AirForce Sails was created in 2000 from the assets of JSI and the Boyle's vision for an Internet-based approach to sailmaking. Sam Levin was a minority investor in both SailNet and AirForce. SailNet, under majority investor control in 2005, declared bankruptcy in July and ceased business operations.

SailNet.com's bankruptcy filing with a list of investors, creditors, debts and assets is available as a .pdf download from “Coast News Online”.
Download (68 page pdf) here: http://www.coastnews.net/sailnetpetition.pdf

To present a claim against Sailnet, contact:

Mr. Kevin Cambell
Campbell Law Firm
890 Johnnie Dodds Boulevard
PO Box 684
Mt Pleasant SC 29465
Phone 843-884-6874
Fax 843-884-0997

The new owners have offered to sell you the items at the highest possible discount. You would need to provide proof of loss (bankruptcy claim against Marinenet, Inc. or other proof of loss.
They have a phone open at 860-349-9499.

[Euro Cruiser]

Wow... For those of us who at one time chose to use Sailnet as a vendor, reading the bankruptcy filing is quite instructive. E.g. I wonder how many Air Force Sails customers knew (or were told) that their sails were being built by the China Sales Factory in Hong Kong. Or that the company they were trusting with their orders & CC #s weren't filing their quarterly tax returns with their State or the Feds.

And now we have two of Sailnet's owners buying a piece of the bankrupt Sailnet biz and, once again, trying to make it work - most likely by making tall promises in shiny web & magazine ads, and asking for orders & CC #s. It will be interesting to see how short are the memories of sailors who want a 'good deal'...

Jack

VERY SHORT!
Now, I am off to WalMart to by a shiny new Armeni Suit

[GordMay]

Oct. 10/05

Message from SailNet home page:

SailNet is in transition and will be back up shortly.

In preparation for a resolution of our legal proceedings, the Sailnet Website is being moved by the trustee to a new hosting arrangement in order to continue to support the community sections of the Site and may be unavailable over the next few days.

Thank you for your continued support. Please check back in a few days.

[GordMay]

October 11/05
The SailNet board is back “up” - at the same old place:
http://www.sailnet.com/messageboards/index.cfm

[GordMay]

Pre-Press Release: marine.com and SailNet tie the knot (a bowline of course!)
Date: Tuesday November 1, 2005

We want you, our Community, to know first.

It is with great pleasure and lots of excitement that we announce a new Captain at the helm of your SailNet Community. After several months in the doldrums, the southern winds have propelled SailNet north to merge with marine.com. Providing boaters with name-brand products and top-rated service since 1997, marine.com is one of the Web's leading e-commerce sites.

Sailnet's decade-long legacy of serving the sailing community will continue. The interactive forums, articles and other links on the SailNet.com website are operational today. Over the next couple of weeks we will re-launch an upgraded website, activate the SailNet email lists and introduce you to a new and expanded sailing store.

Most importantly, with the solid backing of marine.com, access to the SailNet Community continues to be FREE.

The New Crew* is fully committed.
We value your continued support of the SailNet Community which has been recognized as "Best of the Web" for content, resources and community four years in a row by Forbes Magazine. SailNet's new Crew understands that it is because of you that this recognition has been bestowed.

We would like to hear your thoughts on the SailNet Community and your suggestions for future enhancements. Please visit www.sailnet.com to contact us. We look forward to serving your needs.

Rob Proctor
CEO, marine.com / SailNet
www.sailnet.com
www.marine.com

*About the new owners: http://www.marine.com/team.php

[Euro Cruiser]

Are any readers of this thread current (or former) marine.com customers? If so, how about introducing us to this company and how it relates to its customer base? It would be helpful to others, I'm sure.

I tried to accept the new owner's invitation to post him some Q's about marine.com but the message system at Sailnet.com wasn't working. In hopes he sees the message board there on occasion, I posed my Q's directly at http://www.sailnet.com/messageboards...2091&post=true Let's see what we hear...

Jack

[GordMay]

Rob Proctor, responding to Jack's (Whoosh- EuroCruiser) questions on Sailnet:

marinedtcomRob

Thanks for the great post! We'll fill you all in more about what we're up to in the coming weeks and months but in general we want input from folks like yourself about what they liked about Sailnet and how we can make it better.
It's no secret that the former owners didn't have a businsess strategy that sustained itself, let alone made any money. Worse, they apparently closed the business down in the worst way.
First and foremost I will tell you, we're realists, and don't have a bunch of Venture Capital money we're itching to burn through. What we've done at marine.com has worked. Most of our customers seem to really like the service we offer.
Marine.com / Sailnet is located in West Chester, PA and Durham, CT.
MindDrivers plays an active role in providing top to bottom active support and management. They are in West Chester, PA.
Most orders are processed and a significant percentage are shipped from Durham, CT. Additionally we have a network of distributors we've been doing business with for seven years who have an electronic interface to our system and ship for us same day. This provides us to much greater inventory that we can ship for you on a same day basis without having to make you wait while we order product in.
Regarding the returns policy you mention, this was never enforced in practice, was written years ago and has been changed on the web site. Thank you for pointing it out. We charge nothing for returns as long as the product is new, unused, in its original packaging and the return is within the 30 day limit.

I understand your concerns given what you and others experienced with the prior ownership. They were a very different operation that started with a lot of Venture Capital "funny money" behind the operation.
We've grown principally due to internally generated growth using a real world business model. We see tremendous value to the community of sailors in what Sailnet offers. Only by enhancing the value that you the user experience when you come to Sailnet can we have any hope of enhancing the value of our investment of time and money.
I myself have a passion for sailing and what goes with sailing. I am confident in the months ahead we will meet and then exceed your expectations.
Please feel free to contact me directly should you have additional concerns. I would enjoy speaking with you.

Regards,
Rob Proctor

Marine.com LLC
602 Blue Hills Road
Durham, CT 06422-3108
PH: 860-349-9499
Toll Free: 800-597-1781
FAX: 928-962-1049

[GordMay]

Message from Rob Proctor:
<quote>
The list server, which handles the email list, has been down since Marinenet (Sailnet's prior owners) went belly up. We, Marine.com LLC, have had control of the Sailnet servers for a little less than a week at this point. We anticipate having the list server back up no later than Nov. 11. Sailnet forums, lists, email services, etc. are free unlike those found at Sailjazz. We will be reinvigorating Sailnet with the help of our community over the coming months. We would ask all interested members to, in the short run to contact us via our "Contact Us" link (at the bottom of our blurb on the homepage). We are interested in your thoughts and suggestions as to what we can do to make Sailnet the best resource for sailors on the web.
<end quote>

[GordMay]

From Jeff at SailNet Tech Support.

“Yes, the old member pages are down and are being replaced. We are working on replacing them with a more robust and up-to-date system. We are also in the process of making major enhancements to the website and will be updating the Message Boards and adding a very nice photo gallery for all of your shots.

We also have a new editor coming on board and will be publishing many new articles and making Sailnet bigger and better than ever.”