What follows is my recollection of a radio conversation I had with the marina in Mackay recently.
First, the situation,
It is two thirty on a Thursday afternoon (late night shopping up here) and I am two hours out of Mackay. I plan to get fuel at the marina, get a taxi to the shops for supplies, have a haircut, restock the liquor cabinett and then get back on the move again sometime in the evening.

Conversation basically as follows,

ME. Mackay marina, do you have a 24 hour fuel dock or is there set times ?

MACKAY MARINA. Our fuel dock is open from 0800 to 1600 hours.

ME. OH, OK, looks like I am going to be to late to get fuel.

MACKAY MARINA. How far away are you ?

ME. I should get to you by 1630 hours.

10 seccond pause.

MACKAY MARINA. How much fuel do you want ?

ME. About 120 liters of distillate.

LOOOOOOONG PAUSE

MACKAY MARINA. No we definitely close the fuel dock at 1600 hours but you are more than welcome to take a berth with us and get your fuel in the morning.

ME. No, thats OK thank you, I will get my fuel in Airlie.


Now to my way of thinking, the first pause was to consider whether it was worth keeping the bowser operating if the person on the radio wanted a "decent" amount of fuel.
The second, much longer pause was when the Mackay marina was deciding to justify keeping the fuel dock open just to sell a miserly 120 literes of fuel when they could probably get the boatie to cough up for a marina berth for the night if they didn't.

It all sounded to me like a very blatant way of collecting money from another southern yachtie who is on his annual jaunt to the Whitsundays.

Well, I wasnt low on fuel. I was just topping off. I was more interested in the shopping. Airlie is just a day sail away, has a lot better fuel berth and I don't have to catch a cab both ways to do my shopping.

What did Mackay loose.

The sale of approx $200 of fuel
Approx $200 worth of groceries.
$50.00 in cab fares.
$25 at the barber
Probably $140 in the grog shop (good thing I dont drink much)
$40 to $50 for a nice meal out.

Thats nearly $700 that went into the pockets of businesses in Airlie rather than Mackay businesses.

Now it's one thing being in business to make money and tourists are usually ready to spend but the openly blatant way that they went about deciding whether to keep the fuel dock open and then "kindly"offering to hire me a marina birth when they decided not to keep it open just stung me a bit.

What doesn't come across in my recollection of the radio conversation was the tone and obvious attitude of the person I was speaking to on the radio.

I will certainly by pass Mackay on my future trips.

On a brighter side. We stopped at Port Marina in Port Macquarrie. East Coast Marina in Manly, Keppel Bay Marina in Rosly Bay and all of them were more than helpful in many ways.

Hi all still getting through the amount of information and learning as much as I can. Got onto a crew for a winter comp out of

RANSA starting this weekend so very happy to get hours up on the water and learn as much as I can. My family are very

supportive even putting money aside when I decide to do a proper course later on.

Well question is about boat and which one I have noticed good ocean boats such as s&s34, Arends, Brolga, Nantucket 33

and Albin Vega 27 to name a few good vessels.


But what would be wrong with something like this Boro temptress given the price is low but its the material specs etc I'm

interested in and why one would steer away from this kind of purchase?

http://www.boatpoint.com.au/boats-for-sale/dealer/used/OAG-AD-873841/1983-BORO-TEMPTRESS-34?WT.seg_4=PriceAlert%3BPCAA



This thread would be good for any beginner such as myself to start from and the insight from this forums members would be

great information.

Thanks Jorge