That Peter Harken’s discovery of the merits of those little plastic balls came about in one of the ice boating capitals of the world was surely a sign… In order to stay upright on an ice boat there is nothing as critical as a free-running mainsheet system. This is 1950s Skeeter champion Frank Trost with homemade large diameter blocks; heavier, yes, but lower friction than the available alternatives
And then the ball bearings… it was really simple. But we have it today. So that worked well too.’
Giving back to the future The 21st century brought America’s Cup success, but it also delivered a Parkinson’s diagnosis to Olaf Harken; he died in 2019. ‘We’d already been approached by 50
or 60 outside buyers,’ Peter explains, ‘but we decided before he died to sell to our employees.’ With an outside buyer, ‘when the crap
hits the fan, like a recession or a Covid, guess what the owners do first? They take care of their own wallet. And then the employees get taken care of – or not taken care of. We are very close to our employ- ees. And we just couldn’t let that happen.’ Instead they used the Employee Stock
Ownership Program, which pays the founders off over time without bankrupt- ing the company. ‘Believe it or not, our US government actually does some good stuff once in a while! ‘They came up with this back in the early
1970s, after seeing strong family companies get bought out and the employees getting hurt. They said, “There’s got to be a way for original owners to sell out and have the cul- ture keep going, not get all buggered up.” ‘Of course, the employees themselves
can’t afford to buy it…’ so during the tran- sition the company is exempt from federal tax. ‘We don’t get the big chunk of cash right away; it might take 20 or 30 years for us to get paid off. But as long as you follow the rules the company isn’t taxed. Which makes it very affordable! It’s work- ing, and we’re all happy.’ Best of all, the company that now main-
tains a 26-acre facility in Wisconsin – as well as smaller offices all around the world – has been able to carry on one very personal tra- dition: a dog-friendly culture. ‘We’ve always
44 SEAHORSE
had dogs all over the place,’ Peter tells me. ‘Even today… If you don’t like dogs you’d better not join the company!’
Never grow up The young Peter had ‘some close calls’ at marriage, but until he met Edit he says all his relationships would eventually fall apart. ‘The usual comment was “he will never grow up”.’ He shrugs. ‘I think in my personal life I was trying to do too much at one time; trying to race through school, or get out of the army in a hurry, because I had all these other visions to get going on.’ So it probably wasn’t a coincidence that
he didn’t marry until after selling the company that he and his brother built from all those ‘visions’. He met Edit, a Hungarian doctor who’d
come to the States to work with the NIH, when he spoke at a Milwaukee Yacht Club new members’ meeting. Looking down from the bar, ‘this blond kind of stood out from the rest of the crowd’. When Peter asked a friend who she was he learned that she needed a sponsor to join the yacht club – and that she was newly divorced. ‘So I go down, and there are five much
better and younger good-looking guys in front of me! But then I thought, who is the best bullshitter in the world? I can do this. I wasn’t planning anything; I just figured we could be friends.’ He did ask her out to dinner, at a restau-
rant on the water – but he didn’t make a reservation. So when Edit arrived first and asked for the Harken table, ‘They had no idea! I finally walk in there, and she kind of gives me this look… it wasn’t very pleas- ant. There wasn’t a place to sit, the bar was full, these other guys were asking her to sit down… She said, “Thanks for making a reservation…”’ He laughs at the memory. Despite this rocky beginning, ‘we got along pretty well. She did call me a pig at the
table, though! She eats really fast, so I said, “You eat just like a horse!” I thought I was paying her a compliment. She said, “Well, thank you very much… I think you’re a pig.” I had nothing to lose at that point, so I go “oink oink, I guess so! He pauses. ‘And that’s when she said, “I like pigs.”’ They’ve been married nine years now.
‘We passed the seven-year mark! She’s great at travelling, does all the planning; she’s good at it.’ When I point out that she learned that the hard way, on their first date, he grins. ‘That’s right!’ The couple plan to take their Outback
50 powerboat to the Bahamas again over the winter, though Peter says they don’t like really long trips. ‘We’ll just do week to week, something like that.’ Which means that his travel itinerary will continue to impress – and, unless we happen to cross paths at a future regatta or Hall of Fame ceremony, he will be very hard to pin down. Too bad, because I’m certain he has many more great stories tell.
Not about the money Despite Harken’s financial success Peter insists that his primary focus was never on making money. ‘I think we all got into this business because it was fun, more than any- thing else,’ he says, as we watch the best Star sailors on the planet head out for what would be the windiest day of their world championship. And though he claims he and Olaf succeeded ‘in spite of ourselves’, he doesn’t hesitate to share his own approach with other budding entrepreneurs. ‘I have a lot of young guys who ask,
“How did you start this? How did you plan for this and do all this stuff?” So I just say… I didn’t. There’s no big secret to it; have a lot of patience. Plod along. Have fun at it while you’re at it. And if you’re gonna think only about making money… it’s not the business to be in.’
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