Tony Athens Missing on Boat Diesel

It has been over a month now since Tony Athens departed Boat Diesel's website. I for one miss Tony and his top of the mountain knowledge and experience. It just doesn't seem the same place. But my guess is too many advertisers took umbrage at his "call a spade a spade" writings.

Am I alone in thinking there is a void at BD?

Maybe he could start posting here more often.

Here he is alive and well.

Tony's Tips - Seaboard Marine

I sure miss his participation on boatdiesel. Seems to me Seaboard Marine is trying to get more activity going on their website. I spoke with Tony on the phone a month or so ago about upgrading the electrical system on my Cummins-powered boat - design ideas, components he could offer, etc. He offered some advice, and suggested I send him a diagram of the electrical system as I was planning it, so he could evaluate and comment.

I got the diagram worked up to where I thought it was a good start, and sent it to his email address. Next day I got a response from his staff suggesting I join the Seaboard forum and post it there. There were very few posts on the forum at that time - just getting started. I had to get some things decided quickly, had another very capable resource, and did not try using Seaboard's forum. Did buy an alternator though.

There are several more posts (dozens) by now.

It makes sense long term for popular content creators such as TA to do it in their own sandbox. Especially if it's tied to an existing, well established internet domain.

I say good for him and I wish him great success.

sunchaser said:

I for one miss Tony and his top of the mountain knowledge and experience.

Am I alone in thinking there is a void at BD?

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Add me to your concerns, Tom....Tony has giving me top info over the years.

Tony Athens is here on TF. Just post a question for him. I bet he answers it.

I though BoatDiesel was his site? I guess not?

This thread has a bit of background, see post #14 http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s6/twin-disc-shifting-issue-28791.html

twistedtree said:

I though BoatDiesel was his site? I guess not?

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He is an active member but not the owner. Owner is Peter Compton.

seasalt007 said:

Here he is alive and well.

Tony's Tips - Seaboard Marine

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Thanks for the link, Tony is a wealth of knowledge.

I always thought there was good info on BD, but the web page format, search, etc was not very good.


His SB website has some great articles. Started reading the raw water cooling systems yesterday. Good stuff.

Fletcher500 said:

His SB website has some great articles. Started reading the raw water cooling systems yesterday. Good stuff.

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Agreed. Those pictures of plugged and unserviced raw water after coolers are tough to look at.

Fletcher500 said:

I always thought there was good info on BD, but the web page format, search, etc was not very good.

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I joined BD about 6 weeks ago when I started considering boats with Yanmars, Volvos or CAT's rather Cummins. I have gotten my money's worth but I agree that the site took a little effort figuring out how it worked.

Boatdiesel takes some time to get used to because it is a custom coded forum site. Peter Compton, the site owner and developer, is a little (maybe a lot) paranoid about malware. So he has some strange protocols for adding pictures, pdf files as well as simple URL references (can't embed them in text for example). But it all works once you get the hang of it and much, much better than Yahoo groups like Mainships.

And FWIW it loads three times faster on my pc than Tony's site and I can scan topics from the newest down and read a little about the topic and the newest posts without having to select it, unlike most vBulletin forums such as this one. And from my limited browsing, when you come back to a thread on Tony's site, you always start at the top again.

Different strokes..... and you can't please everyone....

David

Thanks for the link to Tony's Tips. Some real good information and advice there. I'm on Boat Diesel, but I must confess I find the site difficult to browse--probably because I don't go to it often. I probably won't renew the paid membership portion.

JDCAVE said:

I'm on Boat Diesel, but I must confess I find the site difficult to browse--probably because I don't go to it often. I probably won't renew the paid membership portion.

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This...

I've been on B>D. for quite a few years now and have learned a lot, no a heck of a lot, ,from Tony, Ski, Dave, Dick and many others who have given much time over the years.

Often what I learned could be applied immediately by me on my own boat and to help others , either on the dock or on the forum. I found that just because all the topics didn't apply to my immediate needs that they were not usefull. Just being made aware of stuff to watch for meant you got an early warning rather than needing to wait for a problem.