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Editor: Practical
Sailor Magazine October
10, 2001 The
only thing that I can add to your excellent analysis of the Furl Boom installed
on my Hunter Legend 35.5 are plaudits for the manufacturer. I
ordered my Furl Boom at the Fort Lauderdale boat show when it was first made
available to the American market.
The exclusive agent was a very respectable rigging company called
Norseman Marine and the boom was called "Norseman Furlboom".
Joe Brooks, from Australia, the designer was there at the time.
I paid my deposit of $3000.00 and waited.
When I read about Norseman's bankruptcy I went to the telephone and found
Max Hazelwood, who had been hired as a coordinator by the manufacturer to help
solve the problems of the bankruptcy.
What happened then amazed me.
YSA authorized Hazelwood to hire the former Norseman head rigger
(temporarily unemployed) to install the equipment which was shipped to my home
and all I had to pay was what was due under my Norseman contract, YSA eating the
loss of the $3000.00 down payment, This was not the end of it.
At the Miami boat show last February I ran into Brian Smith, VP of
Operations at YSA.
He confirmed that my boom was delivered with grey sail covers and that
FLYER was trimmed in Navy Blue.
The he sent me a new set of Navy Blue covers at no charge.
This is a company that is dedicated to customer service. Butch
Ulmer, my chosen sail maker, never expressed doubts to me about boom furling
when I called him to discuss the very same.
He sent my mainsail order to his UK people in Miami, Don Stagg and Mark
Wood. They
installed the sail and adjusted it for ease of furling.
The six batten sail has substantially improved performance of FLYER and
has indeed
extended the sailing time left to me as my 75th birthday approaches. Robert N. Grosby
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