This post was composed by sending an email to j105owners@groups.io with “test” in the re-line. Joerg Esdorn +1-914-707-1814 Joerg Esdorn +1-914-707-1814 -- Joerg Esdorn #125 Kincsem Sausalito, CA

Thanks everyone for subscribing today. I'm sure you've checked out the two posts I made and are wondering how this forum can help you and other owners. As most of you know, I own a cruising boat as well and we have an io group for the owners of that make of boat (an Amel). There are some 1200 members on the forum and every day there are several posts. The older the boats get, the more the owners need the help of other owners for problems, new "tricks" that someone has discovered, repairing and upgrading equipment, sourcing spare or replacement parts, etc. The io group and the fact that the owners help each other a lot is definitely a key factor for the excellent resale value of Amel boats. Other major boat makes have io groups as well - for example, there is a Halberg Rassy io group. Here are some of the reasons why I like the io group as a forum for owners to exchange information: 1. Unlike a normal internet forum, I can follow what's going on without spending a lot of time on it. I have set my "subscription" preferences to "summary." This means that once a day, at 6 am Pacific, I get an email that gives me the following: New Topics - listing by headline, each of the posts that are new topics (i.e. don't respond to a topic that was previously raised) since the last summary New Replies - listing by headline, each of the new replies on previous topics since the last summary. If I'm interested in any of these topics, all I need to do is click on the headline link and I get transferred to the right place on the forum where I can read the full post or posts and reply to it or them. If I'm super interested, I can change my preferences to "single" which means I get an email anytime anyone posts something on the forum and can go directly to the post by clicking on the link in the email. I can also decline to get any emails and just check the forum when I want to. 2. The forum is restricted which means that nobody can become a member unless he or she is approved. I envision that membership could be limited to owners of J105s who have paid dues. This could be a good incentive for owners to become members of the class. 3. The forum is text searchable. The search engine works very well and it's a breeze to find discussions of old topics. 4. We can have subgroups for discussion of certain topics - like class rules. Or boats or equipment for sale. 5. We can have "files" - for example, a series of annotated pictures on how to do something on the boat. 6. We could transfer content from our old forum (if it still exists) to the new group. 7. An io group is dirt cheap. It think the Amel group pays $240/year. We're currently having a 30 day trial for the J105 group. Let me know if you have any questions. The Amel Forum has a Wiki which explains everything in great detail. I could probably get a copy of the content for the J105 group. Cheers Joerg -- Joerg Esdorn #125 Kincsem Sausalito, CA