I know it's not sailing related, but we have a lot of forum members in Southern California. I hope and pray you are all alright.

I'm with you Brian. Hey Matt, how are you and the factory holding up?

Mike

Google map of the fires

I'm not sure if he's on this forum but Scott Miller and his wife Pattie Miller from the SanDiego area have lost their home to the fires. I've known Scott for a few years from sailing out there and had the pleasure of seeing him again at F18N/A's in Galveston a few weeks ago. Scott and Pattie are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. If you all could say a little prayer for them to get through this as easy as they can, I would appreciate it .

Thanks,

Lee Wicklund

That's awful. I hope everything works out for them.



I was apparently tired when I wrote that post. I hope anyone who knows me understands that by "you" I meant Matt and his family, and by "the factory" I meant all the folks and families at Hobie Cat.

Mike

I understood! Thanks for your interest.

The factory is fine and thus far, none of our staff has had a house burned. Just heavy smoke and ash. We have some staffing issues as there are evacuations and schools are closed. My son has been spending days here with me. Doug has been evacuated since Monday and Fallbrook is still closed residents.

We are between the major fire to the south and another couple just to the north. The winds have died off and they are getting a handle on things.

We have yet to hear from many of the local Hobie people, but as in the case of the Miller's (Scott), we have to assume others homes may be burned. The news is reporting something like 1,500 homes damaged or destroyed now.

As a Country Fire Service volunteer I'm often really disappointed by the support that people from the large towns give. Were regulary asked to supply staff for fires 1000km away near Sydney where theres millions of people wandering around with their heads up their you know what. Is it the same in California with only small town people working the fires, you don't nead training or stamina to work a rake or backpack mopping up which would free up more trained people for the fire front. Its really impressive how low the loss of life is considering the properties that have been destroyed and I hope that all those in the sailing community remain safe
regards

not related to the fires but i just want to say how good it is to have people in the catamaran business on this forum

so please stick it out Matt and others

all too often recreational users, esp. on forums like this, seem to gang up on "company people" and make their online life hell so they simply give up and stop contributing and we all lose invaluable info on the future of our sport when that happens

this comes to mind as while i was researching the mysterious supercats the google links often led back to this forum and posts by the designer!

who seems to have stopped posting in 2004 after a particularly pointless series of attacks by people who took their passion a little too far:-(

Talked with the Miller's (Scott and Patty) this evening.

Along with the house, went the boat (Tiger), up in flames.
We asked what we could do for them. They want to go
sailing. We offered the use of our boat anytime they feel
like it.

Later,
Dan