A significant equipment sponsor of our Electric Propulsion equipment has let us down.
Despite repeated promises to deliver equipment and a paper trail, reinforced as recently as September, their director has denied knowledge of our agreement to loan/donate an outboard electric propulsion outboard motor, which one of their staff members repeatedly made. We dedicated and invested many hours of design time and talked with their technical advisor about designing the hybrid system.
At the Southampton Boat Show, a third-party visitor, having heard of the company's involvement in our project, approached us to discuss our choices.
This member of the public later thanked one of their uniformed staff members for supporting our project. However, that staff member stated that the electronic propulsion company had never intended to help us and made abhorrent comments about our project, crew members and health status.
Although completely crestfallen, we were grateful to this visitor for bringing the situation to our attention.
We complained to their UK director but have not received a reply. Their marketing manager promised to contact us once they had more information, but they have not replied to our follow-up emails.
We have formally written to the show organisers about the exhibitor/company's appalling comments and will continue to do so for their future events and affiliate organisations.
We have removed all their sponsorship and branding from our literature and press releases.
We will not tolerate gas-lighting, bigotry, or bullying, especially when the comments are related to one of our charity causes.
If you can help us, please get in touch:
Personal Sponsors: www.gofundme.com/f/sofatosailboat
Please donate to our Charities: www.sofatosailboat.co.uk/donate
Corporate Sponsors: www.sofatosailboat.co.uk/sponsor-information
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