Catastrophe and his Stand Over Tactics

[Ned@TheEDGE]

Since this got deleted from OSO because it involved the charming and delightful Alec Cloake I thought I would post it here. About a week ago my Project manager Ian posted a thread about the new magazine we are launching in January which will replace H2O. Well this continues on from that.
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Just to give you guys a heads up on something. Over the past week I have been sitting back and watching as Alec Cloake (Catastrophe) has been trying to bully and blackmail my Project Manager Ian Matheson into paying some imaginary bill.

Now I am happy to share everything with you since I am not going to let Cloake standover Ian any further. It dates back to when we went to Grand Lake in Oklahoma to cover the E Dock gang. I took Jay Nichols and Lori there to shoot the feature. Well Mr Nicholls was booked to arrive into OK late one afternoon and that I would arrange a hotel for him to stay overnight and when I arrived later that night I would take him and Lori to Grand Lake in my rental car. Well seems like he decided to change plans without even discussing it with us and rented another car, which remained sitting in Jim Lees garage for the week we were there, costing us around $1000 of dead money.

Then not that long later We sent Nicholls down to Grand Cayman to cover the Million Dollar run. We paid for his airfare and expenses etc as would be expected. He duly sent us the images and story for the event, although the text needed a lot of work, but this was expected and accepted. Not long after that I also sent him to the Virgin Islands to cover another poker run for us. Again we covered his airline tickets and expenses and this was no issue. We received the images but never received the story, and to this date have never received it.

Then Patchogue was coming up. I called Smitty and asked that if we sent someone to cover the event could he do me a favour and put them in the helicopter to shoot some images. In his usual helpful way Smitty said he would make it happen. I then asked Jay if he would go. He agreed and he booked the airline ticket and the accommodation. Funds were transferred to him for the airline tickets so this was squared before he left. Once there he got himself a hotel, which was a lot more than he was told to spend, and he knew this.

Well during the event he decided that since he hadnt been paid for the Grand Cayman piece, even though according to our terms it wasnt due at that time, he wasnt going to send us the BVI text nor the story and images from Patchogue, even though he had already taken advantage of me paying for the airline tickets to get to Patchogue. Needless to say I expressed my opinions and told him where to go. From then we had nothing to do with him for many months. He was advised that if he didnt send us the images and story as agreed then he wouldnt get any expenses reimbursed. He declined to send us anything and thats where it was left, and again I will highlight that he continued to go flying in the helicopter that was provided for him as a favour to H2O, and he sold images from that race meeting to others that wanted them.

Then fast forward to a few days ago when Ian posted on here about the new magazine, and Ian receives PMs from Cloak telling him that he had "bought Jays debt" and that we owed him $4000, which was very interesting considering the whole amount of expenses Nicholls incurred at Patchogue was $1135, and we have a paypal invoice to this effect from Nicholls. Ian explained to Cloak numerous times that Nicholls was not owed anything for the BVI story or Patchogue story as he didnt fulful his requirement to send the story and images for both so they could be published. Cloak became even more agressive and threatening, telling Ian he would be hounding us on all the websites and making life for us a misery. He also told us that everyone who posted on this thread wishing us well would be sent a PM telling them that we screwed Jay Nicholls. Just goes to show the class of the person.

Now I will admit right here and now that when my accounts person went back through the books she had neglected to make a transfer to Nicholls for the Grand Cayman story, and this was sorted a few days ago by a paypal transfer (copy of which is available for anyone wishes to see it). Yes she made a mistake and this was corrected. But since then Cloak has continued to harras Ian and threaten him that unless we paid Nicholls his expenses from Patchogue then he would be contacting our advertisers and anyone he could and making our life miser for the $1200 we wouldnt pay.

Now you can all make up your own minds on what has transpired. I have chatted with Matt Trulio, my Exec Editor on the new mag and asked him what he would do, he said that since no images or story was ever received, he isnt entitled to any funds. Now Cloak says that the only way that Nicholls could get payment was to withhold services from us. Well thats fine if he wants to do that, but if it was such as issue then why did he still accept the trip to Patchogue, using the airline ticket we paid for, flying in the helicopter that Smitty provided to us and staying in a hotel that was going to be provided for us. Had he decided that NO I am not going until the Cayman story is paid for, then that would have been fine. But he didnt, he wanted his cake and eat it to.

Anyway here is the full story and we have copies of all emails and PMs from Cloak and even the one from Nicholls on FB outlining what was owing, in his own words and will stand by our decision.

You all have your own thoughts and ideas on who is right and who is wrong, but all I will say is we are not going to get blackmailed and bullied into paying something because Cloak is mates with Nicholls. Yes I have been slack paying bills in the past and one or two have been highlighted here and everyone is responsible for their own actions, sort of like when Cloak had some african american people on his boat at Fort Myers last year and dropped the N word in front of them. So we are not all perfect, and I am far from it.

I am not going to post on here anymore about this. You are all free to make your own decisions.

Ned

[Ned@TheEDGE]

And if anyone is interested we have copies of all the PMs from Cloak printed out for your viewing pleasure which show all his threats.

Ned

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

In case you haven't noticed neither JayBoat or Catastrophe post here..

[Ned@TheEDGE]

Jim - Thats fine, just thought I would post it here anyway so people can see the true colours of both these individuals.

I do know they are able to visit and read the posts from time to time so might as well give them something to read

It got deleted from OSO because the mods there are bossom buddies with Alec.

[Bobcat]

Are we talking about Jay "short eyes" Nichols....he is banned, and not only from here

[Ned@TheEDGE]

Bobcat - Yep the one and only. Sad that they would happily let Alec terrorise my admin manager but when I wanted to post and let everyone know what he was doing the mods removed my post. Doesnt really surprise me though.

Ned

[mdkeywest]

oso is run by women ,

[Ned@TheEDGE]

They do have a couple of good mods there, you know who you are

[Buoy]

oso is run by women ,

What kind of boats do they have? Nothing cooler than a gal that owns her own boat. That's how I met my wife

[Bobcat]

I'm laughing so hard the chili I ate an hour ago might not wait for that 2nd cup of coffee tomorrow !

[catastrophe]

Wait, I'll be right with ya.

[Ned@TheEDGE]

Have your say Cloak, its an open forum. You tried stand over tactics with Ian and showed what sort of person you are. I dont really care what you have to say. I know the facts and you can believe whatever lies and B/s Nicholls has told you. Yeah we made a mistake in the payment for Grand Cayman story to Nicholls but if you think you can bully us into paying him $1200 for nothing you are wrong.

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

Well get his name right. Cloke.

[catastrophe]

Well get his name right. Cloke.

Thanks

The disrespect !!

[Bgchuby01]

Alex is is nothing but trouble just ask some of the mods on here, As for OSO being run by women, it is run by only one. speedgirl

[Cash Bar]

No longer necessary

[Davidmnc]

Alec,

Um...................what do you have to do with this any way? I'm just say'n.

[catastrophe]

Alec,

Um...................what do you have to do with this any way? I'm just say'n.

Just lookin out for a friend. Nothin more.

[Bgchuby01]

the same cloke that ran his mouth on OSO about me two years ago without knowing me or even meeting me. Hides himself up there in canada land of the chickens. Land of the French. I have never met cloke but I bet he's 5'10 and 160lbs and hides behind his keyboard trying to act big. Typical frenchman that runs backwards at the sight of anything that scares him. Cloke between you and the other mental midget commanche36 on OSO from jersey both of you need to grow up. Yea Ed I mean you, I have friends in south jersey who have explained to me who and what you are. lets see 5'10 and scared of your own shadow. Oh by the way the guys in texas are still waiting for your call.

[catastrophe]

the same cloke that ran his mouth on OSO about me two years ago without knowing me or even meeting me. Hides himself up there in canada land of the chickens. Land of the French. I have never met cloke but I bet he's 5'10 and 160lbs and hides behind his keyboard trying to act big. Typical frenchman that runs backwards at the sight of anything that scares him. Cloke between you and the other mental midget commanche36 on OSO from jersey both of you need to grow up. Yea Ed I mean you, I have friends in south jersey who have explained to me who and what you are. lets see 5'10 and scared of your own shadow. Oh by the way the guys in texas are still waiting for your call.

Was that the time when you stole CardShark ??