that one set-up. It may take three or four hours to set the machine up but mostly the program is already in the machine. SH:Machines are a big story but you’re pretty famous too for your loyalty to your staff… PH: You know, we’ve got some 40-year veterans, 30-year veterans, 25-year veterans. I would say it’s kind of the culture of the company. I’ve always said the only asset a company really has is its people. You can buy machinery, you can buy vehicles, you can buy all that, but you can’t really buy good people. You can maybe offer some- body you think is really good a higher salary to bring them in, but if he or she is not really happy here and they’re not enjoying the culture of the company, you can’t keep them. So fortunately we’ve been able to
surround ourselves with really bright, great people. They want to be here. And our philosophy is let your people run. We call it a ‘we’ company, we don’t allow the word I. I did this, I was successful at this, or I made this mistake – we never point fingers at somebody. If we make a mistake we make a mistake and we correct. And the same thing in success. It’s completely a team effort. Sure, we train them in stuff where they need training but after that we don’t spoon-feed them. They’re on their own. They go ahead and do their job and they’re free to criticise and make mistakes and correct them. So, yeah, we rely on them entirely and
we have fun with them, they’re a great group. So here in Italy and back in the US that’s how it works. There’s no one person. The guy sweeping the floor, or whatever, to us is just as important as the top engineer. There are a few of us now too. In the US
plant there are about 220, 240 with out- side people who work from home. And here in Italy I believe it’s 80 or 90 people. Then around the world with the different subsidiaries it’s about 450 in total.
48 SEAHORSE
couple of legs the fastest boat overcomes brains and tactics and crosses the finish in first place. It’s a Le Mans running start and these
Top: to the manner born… after watching a day’s racing at the J Class Worlds in Newport Peter Harken and his wife Edit (in the stern) are driven ashore past Harbour Court, the New York Yacht Club’s summer clubhouse. But not always acting like the manner born – this is Peter (above) being schooled by his E-Skeeter Honeybucket
And, you know, I still recognise every-
one. So, yeah, it’s really a wonderful group of people. I really enjoy being with them. I still go to the plant every day because it’s fun being with the people –my greatest joy is getting out of the office and just wander- ing around the machine shop and talking to the guys. SH: And just finally coming back to the sailing, I heard a rumour you’re not ice boating any more… PH: Yeah, that’s true. The E-Skeeters I sail might be the Ferrari of ice boats but they’re a constant labour of love, so to speak. You better love it, a lot, to make you work at it day and night building new boats and parts like masts, planks, runners everything. You have to in this class because there are no real one-design rules. It was becoming such a war game of
having to build a new boat almost every year and so my passion for it has started to slip a bit. You can’t stop trying to find more speed. In that class speed is everything – he who has the fastest boat wins, period. Smart tactics, like Buddy Melges’, can temporarily put you in front, but after a
boats are 550-600lb. I’m afraid this ol’ 80-year-old body doesn’t quite have the push off the blocks it used to so basically I’m in the wash after the flag drops and that makes it difficult to make up in a race that only lasts 10 minutes. I think the main reason I’ve retired from the E-Skeeters (except for a bit of joy riding) is the guys I have been on the ice with and building these mad machines with for 35 years, like Bill Mattison and Buddy Melges, have all retired from it too… age takes its toll in this class! So I guess my heart isn’t in it any more… been there, done that, next! I took my wife ice boating for the first
time last year. She loved it. For a while she’d thought ice boating was an urban myth because our weather hadn’t been good the two previous years and every time we arrived at the venue there was no wind. That’s the trouble with ice boating – the time you have under the rag is very little compared to the amount of work and travelling you do. Anyway, I got married to a beautiful
Hungarian PhD Doctor of Dermatology – very, very smart lady who was a great giant slalom racer in Hungary in her teens. So she is one heck of a skier… I used to be one heck of a skier 35 years ago before I quit to go ice boating, so I decided ‘next’ was back to skiing. I tried to pick up where I left off 30+ years ago but the bod did not respond like it used to. I busted my butt. Now I’ve backed off on that one too! SH: The end of racing?!? PH: I’m getting to the point, Andrew, where my idea of racing is one hand on the wheel and another one holding a gin and tonic or on my wife’s butt. Well, maybe you can’t put it that way. (Laughter). Let’s say I’ll just race for fun! Next month… paws in the plant Peter Harken was talking to the editor q
GRETCHEN DORIAN
CARLO BORLENGHI
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