In Reply to: The Hell with the "Evil Empire" posted by Captain Tim Burke on July 05, 2007 at 19:26:28:

I was just looking over some of the post over the past couple of weeks and came across this one, so my reply is a little late to say the least. I have kept quiet during this whole Sport Chalet mess and at the risk of being chastized for speaking up have decided to anyway, but what some need to understand is this, even though there are a few local boats where the owners have continued to do business with Sport Chalet, please remember the crew.

If I am wrong with this next statement then please accept my apologies now, but with this all happening in the height of the diving season, and with a couple of the boats still doing business with them (via the owners decision), I believe the bulk of their trips were with Sport Chalet, let's say about 90% if not more of them for the remainder of the year. It may have been the decision of the owners to continue to charter with Sport Chalet not only to loose their business but to help their crew members where the sole income comes from their job on either said boat.

We hope (the crew) that however this turns out, whether Chris Robinson is let go from Sport Chalet for his extremely bad business tactics, or the boats that do remain decide to not continue to do business with them (as no new contracts have been negotiated as I understand - only verbal communications) and they then turn to running open boats or they will go out of business, that the public completely understands this entire scenario. In this tough economic climate we are in, crew members cannot afford not to be employed, and that includes crew members that are Captains (yet not owners). Please remember to support the local dive boats please........regardless of this situation.

Thank you, Crew