[sailingdog]

I just got a message from crewnz. This is what he wrote:

Originally Posted by crewnz

Sailing Dog, your concerns are misplaced.

I run a New Zealand sailing website which is not too dissimilar to Sailnet and I have come to know Phil fairly well since he launched his campaign.

He is bona fide and he is doing a lot more than most of us will ever do with his life by getting out there and making things happen for both himself and his crew. Last year he chartered a traditional old New Zealand designed cruiser racer and achieved his goal of racing in the Hobart and this year he has taken it a step further with a Sydney 38 and a much more professional campaign. He has bought a bunch of people together and created a sailing team that is competing in international regattas like the Sydney Hobart as one of only one or two New Zealand entrants involved each year. Personally, I think that is pretty admirable.

No his website and marketing is not as slick and professional as might be offered by some of the highly funded campaigns, but it seems to be effective as he doesn't have much trouble filling spots on his boat.

Heck, maybe the guy is a crook. I don't know, anybody could be, but from what I can tell he's a good guy that is getting a bunch of people involved in a high level of racing who otherwise would not have the opportunity to do so and fulfiling his own ambition at the same time.

If you are interested in finding out more about what he is doing, please visit my website for hard-core photographic evidence: http://www.crew.org.nz/page/892/philchisolm.html



Because I know that there are very legitimate responses to your concerns, I have attempted to respond to your questions below (these responses are not from Phil himself).


1) Why does the website listed in the information package not come up?
Check again. He does have a website. It is very simple, yes, and leaves a lot to be desired, but it is a website.

2) Why is the information packet so brief and generic?
Yes he could do better to provide more info but Phil is a marine electrician and a sailor, not a frigging graphic designer or marketing consultant!


3) Why do you only accept BANK TRANSFER as the only form of payment?
Why would anybody only doing a few transactions a year take credit cards? My sailing website, which is a small but legitimate and fully functioning business doesn't take credit cards either - it simply costs too much and is too much hassle. He isn't a mass charter business accepting bookings by the dozens, he is taking a few keen yachties out sailing with him each year and sharing expenses.


4) Why do other websites say that the crew has already been selected?
I don't know the answer to this but possibly it's for a different race or somebody has pulled out etc.


5) Of more technical interest, why does the IP address for www.compasspointenterprises.com come up as assigned to a client of an ISP in Hoboken, NJ, USA?

Again I don't know but I do know it is common for New Zealand based website companies to contract out their web services to providers in North America which provide low cost services becuase they can buy in bulk. We do the same with toll calls. I am assuming this is the case here.

I didn't have any problem finding a whois listing for the domain.

I didn't find this all that persuasive, as he quotes a website I first pointed out, which clearly indicates that the crew for Sydney Hobart has been picked. Also, crewnz, being a member of just a day or so, with absolutely no track record of posts or history to view, is not very credible. For all I can tell crewnz and 14ting are one in the same. Both are brand new members with no other posts or track record.

I also find it interesting that 14ting has not replied in over a week. The questions are fairly simple, and crewnz's answers are a bit misleading.

It isn't that I doubt Phil Chisholm is a man of good character and quite a sailor to boot... it is that I doubt that 14ting has any real relationship to Phil Chisholm or the real Compass Point Enterprises.

Crewnz states that the website is now up. It consists of two webpages, and is still hosted on an IP address assigned to a private individual in Hoboken, NJ. I also received an e-mail, allegedly from Phil, in which the prices for the two remaining races have been dropped 30-50%. Hmmm... that seems pretty fishy too.

Crewnz states that Team Compass Point's information packet is so sketchy as Phil is not a graphic designer... that is putting it quite kindly... the packet is just a half-dozen pages long, and most of it is very generic. Even the revised packet is not much to look at. With the basic graphic design capabilities in modern computer software, it would be simple to create something far more presentable than what they sent.

Crewnz also states that companies contract out the website hosting. Well, my question is this: Why was a Hoboken, NJ, based webserver mirroring the error page of a New Zealand ISP. I had contacted the ISP and they were quite curious about that as well, as there is no legitimate reason for a Hoboken-based web server to be doing such.

My point about them accepting only Bank Transfers is still valid. I doubt that this is the only business that Compass Point Enterprises does. Accepting credit cards is a reasonable expectation of any modern business.

I'd still like to hear 14ting weigh in on this issue.