Well, I'll share my thinking, anyway.

I figure if Hobie Cat Company moved East, it would save shipping costs for the factory, the dealers, and/or the consumers.

The dealers might be able to have better profit margins.

Hobie would be closer to their primary markets, which are the East Coast dealers who sell to the Caribbean island resorts and ship out of ports in Florida.

And they would also be more centrally located in the main population center of the United States.

They would also be closer to the majority of the people who sail their boats and might be able to have more influence on the fleets than when they are 3,000 miles away.

I don't know, but I would guess that they sell more kayaks in the East, as well as sailboats.

But my big vision is of Hobie Cat Company setting up shop on the shore of a lake somewhere in the East, so they can:

1. Have a place where people can come to actually try out all the different models of their sailboats and other products.
2. Have a learn-to-sail program.
3. Hold racing clinics for specific models of their boats.
4. Host some regattas.
5. Have tours of the manufacturing facility.
6. Include a display room (a sort of museum) of all the Hobie products and a history of the company and of Hobie Alter.

I think such a facility would be able to get a lot more people into catamaran sailing and would also be tremendous support for the dealers.

Right now people who are interested in getting a catamaran have no way of trying out different boats to decide what they want to get. And people are always asking me where they can go to learn how to sail in general or to sail a catamaran in particular.

A place like this has been a dream of mine for years. And I realize the whole idea is probably too expensive for Hobie Cat Company to do. But I still think it is a great idea.