RC27?

I've contacted them by email from their website and never had a response. I think they are bankrupt, out of business or just plain don't need any more sales. Forget them!.

Both were at the Miami Key Largo Race this year. Look at the results when they are posted next week. ARC/RC boats do not have berths. Both are spendy.

Right! They are expensive boats and they don't need more customers.

Sogncab,

Try calling them on the phone, I have found that they are much more responsive to direct communication.

"I've contacted them by email from their website and never had a response. I think they are bankrupt, out of business or just plain don't need any more sales. Forget them!."

See what happens when you quit taking your meds?

I have a 17 foot Supercat that ARC supports with any part or information I have asked for...technical or general. As an owner I can go on their forum, ask a question and get answers from Matt at the factory. In most cases, Bill Roberts (the designer/engineer) will shed even more light on the solutions available.

I might add that my boat is a 1992 and they still strongly support it…to the point that Bill Roberts personally invited my wife and I to his home to help explain the proper set up of the self taking jib. (which had been rigged wrong by earlier owners) and give sailing tips particular to my boat. Again this is a boat I bought used from a private owner, they made no money, yet bent over backwards to help me straighten out a number of rigging problems the previous owners had caused.

If you make serious inquires, they will respond promptly.
If you approached them with the same tact that you exhibited in your prior statement (as quoted above) you should not be surprised that you didn't get a response.

Regards,
Bob

I can assure you that I politely filled out their Product Information Request Form twice over the last 3 months and never heard back from them. I can only assume they are not interested in selling boats to new customers. If they don't want to respond to inquires by email, they shouldn't give prospective buyers that option on their website - because it sends the wrong impression about their company (unresponsive, perhaps not in business, too busy for new customers and so on.) It's marketing 101. Too bad, because they look like nice boats.

I can assure you the folks at ARC/SC are alive and doing very very well. Spent several hours at their facility last week preping up a lift for my new to me SuperCat.

After reading some the posts, I suggest the authors consider the validity of their f'n opinion before beginning to publicly trash a company that builds an outstanding product. Downright childish with no basis what so ever.

As in the past, I expect the ARC products will do very well again this racing season.

Sail fast, Tom G

All I saw was a guy who had no response to his emails say "forget them!"

A bit defensive I think. You probably need to put down whatever it is that ARC's been having you smoke 😛

I agree with Maughan. What's with the senseless flaming? A guy who wants to buy one of their boats got ignored twice. That's hardly sound business practice, and I would think hard before buying something as expensive and breakable as a boat from someone who couldn't be bothered to return my emails.

Hmmm, to quote, "I think they are bankrupt, out of business or just plain don't need any more sales. Forget them!."

Fair play?

Tom G

The only negatives posted were that ARC didn't seem to be very proactive when it came to customer inquiries. Nothing was said, positive or negative, about their products quality or performance.

If you have connections at ARC you might ask them why they don't reply to electronic communication. They may have a communications problem they're unaware of.

Guys/ Gals:

As said in one of the other threads. Marstrom is REAL bad about emails. There prices are bad too. Customer service should be everything. My family was in business for over 100 years and the customer was everything. That may be one reason a LOT of stuff is made overseas now. We have lost that CARE for the customer and or to involved in the mighty dollar. OH well, these companies will learn in the long run, when there sales go to hell.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Sunfish
Soon to Mystere 4.3
www.tcdyc.com

Tad -- grow up buddy.... that's just plain uncalled for writing something like that -- especially something you know nothing about.

Tom Haberman and Bill Roberts will support you with as much help and beyond anything you will probably receive from any boat manfacturer. I've had Hobies, Prindles, Nacras and a Stiletto, and these are good guys. Give them a chance, and enough with the flaming. This is a small operation and they don't exactly have a large staff to cover the bases. Look around --- how many of these boats do you see around? Aquarius builds them one at a time. They're kind of specialized too. They have always gotten back to me in a timely manner and I usually just call them direct.

I might add that the Haberman family has recently had a death in the family and this has probably had something to do with their lack of response. This has been a long drawn out ordeal. Cut them some slack.

Just my 2 cents.

If you're truly interested in a boat, pick up the phone.

Or you can pout about emails and miss this:

Doug, I get the impression that you have bought a lot of products from Marstrom since you now so much about their support!

Could you give me some examples on all the problems you have had with their products and the lack of support you got?

It is a big differance between a potential customer and an actual customer. Most companies are very responsive with mails/phone calls until you buy their product. If you later on get problems with your product they are VERY hard to reach! Is that better?

It is quite interesting that Marstrom is growing like hell when they have this bad "service". Mitch Booth wanted Marstrom to build the Volvo extrem 40 and they did, top sailors still buy their Tornados from Marstrom, Marstrom recently built 10 seacart trimarans and they have five more to build and they build loads of masts.

/håkan

Sure it is. Believe me, if he really wanted to throw ARC under the bus, he could have done so with spite or malice.

You people are taking this one turned-off potential customer as an insult to the company. They didn't return his emails in a timely fashion, so he decided to go somewhere else. He related his decision to the group in a sarcastic, sort of funny fashion so that anyone with a functioning brain cell could draw the conclusion that:

1) ARC didn't return his Emails
2) therefore he chose to "Forget them"

And my "put down what they were giving you" comment, some of you need to lighten up. It was in direct response to the fact that someone jumped out to a defensive position on a situation that I didn't think warranted such a knee-jerk defense.

If you want to see some people TRUELY bad-mouth and try their hardest to undermine the success of a company, just take a look at all the hobie-bashing. Go to SA and look at some of the things that are said about various manufacturers and designers over there. Then you'll come back here and realize that this is a petty discussion. Give it a rest guys. Nobody is insulting the people at ARC or saying that they are a bad company, or sell a bad product.

Focus on this...... Kruzin'!

Hakan:

I didn't buy anything from Marstrom. I wanted one of there compass mount for a Tacktick that I saw on a Nacra A2 at one of the regattas. I was told Marstrom made it. It was on there website, but had no price on it. I sent numerous emails to them and got no reply. Finally one to the local A catters told me to call Ann-Marlene and she finally got back to me with emails. The price was ridiculous. They wanted 300 euro for the mount and 56 euro to ship it. I found a JCD that would work for $56. I don't know the exchange rate, but a that price you think they would have at least replied to emails. They may be a great company and build great boats. But a little bad press from the little guys goes a long way to hurt US relations.

Just my opinion.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
Sunfish
Soon to be Mystere 4.3
www.tcdyc.com

I agree Doug, 300 euro for a compass mount is ridiculous!

/håkan

Doug,

If you have inspection ports, you can do what we did. These compasses run about $35 each IIRC.

See attachment

I see Claude dishing out some advice there.

Claude is a good person to be getting advice dished from.

With a large spoon. Remind me to tell you later what his first advice was to me. It basically involved my tent and a lake.

Tad:

The JCD is shaped like an L. I am going to get a piece of plastic or wood about 10 x 10 to mount it to and drill holes at ends. Run some rope through the lacing to mount it. That way I can see the Tacktick easy and use the count down timer. I might just get a pole mount for the Mystere 4.3. Will look more at it when I see it.

Doug

The pole mount is the way to go...except that you can't reach it to use the timer.

I am looking a the picture posted and am confused??? I've never seen a tick-tack mounted that far forward on a pole. Most of the time they are mounted much further aft on the pole. Since someday I would like to have a neat toy like that I would like to know reasons for mounting that far forward?

On my H-18 I have mounted compasses in the hull ports, they hurt when you sit on them!!! and I can't see them from the wire. But they are great with the magnum wings, the compasses are at your feet. Most the time I just suffer w/ my good ole' Garmin 12 around my neck. I haven't found a method/location that I'm confident will work and won't let the $$$tick-tack$$$ get torn off the boat by the jib-sheets of the big overlap P-19mx jib.

We have installed a self tacking jib on this I20. The red lines you see just in front of the tack tick are the jib sheets and they sweep back and forth, just over the pole, as we tack/jibe from port to starboard. They wouldn't be able to get around the compass if we moved them any further back. We made a conscesion to mount the turning blocks further back on the pole to allow room for the tack tick. They are usually mounted right at the bridle (actually this works out almost right geometrically for the tacker since the radius of the tacker is a little small). If we mount the tack tick in front of the bridle, the spin sheets will certainly send it to the deep.

Jake:

Does the tactical part of the compass work as advertised? I have never used it and look forward to trying it this year. I just don't want to have a sheet knock it loose as they are $600 now!!! I got it for $250.

Doug

Doug,

This is just a compass that has some dampning built in (to accomodate for wave action and such) and a countdown timer. As far as tactical stuff goes, you can tell if you are getting headed or lifted from the compass reading...but that's about it. The Race Master is much more advanced (and bigger) and although Carl brought his for the Tybee last year, we pretty much just used it as a compass (I didn't have time to study up on it - but I am pretty sure you have to teach it, through example and button clicking, your tacking and jibing angles and such).