Plodding along dropping white plastic balls
Peter Harken is beyond doubt a marine-industry legend. With brother Olaf and ‘third brother’ Art Mitchell, he built a series of visions into a world-renowned company. But to hear him tell the tale this all just happened. As if dropping a few white plastic balls of course led to the lowest-friction blocks and cleats sailors had ever seen. Carol Cronin went back to the start 42 SEAHORSE
My first email request for an interview prompted what I now realise was a typi- cally humble response: ‘Following my mentor Bill M’s (Mattison) footsteps is going to be a pretty dull slug in the mud, but I’ll do the best I can without direct lying.’ He also warned that ‘My schedule is a bit crazy right now…’ As everyone who knows the supposedly
retired 85-year-old had told me, he proved to be very hard to pin down. Even the Seahorse editor added his own tuppence after yet another postponement: ‘Peter, pin down? I think not.’ After two months of trying to schedule a
face-to-face chat I developed a unique appreciation for his impressive travel appetite. Peter married for the first time at 75, and he and Edit Olasz always seemed to be leaving their home in Wisconsin: to spend time on their powerboat, or drop in at a regatta in Europe – or attend one more Hall of Fame ceremony. ‘Another plaque to cover a hole in the wall,’ Peter wrote in one of his many itinerary updates. ‘I appreciate these awards, but how
come they never include cash?!’ (He’s joking of course…) We finally ended up in the same zip code
when Peter decided to drop in on the 100th anniversary Star World Championship. Harken had sponsored the commemorative book 100 Years of Gold Stars, and I had written it; so we were both able to fit in a relaxed morning chat without worrying about weather briefings or start times. He and Edit had only flown back from
Europe a few days earlier – but somehow he had already fixed a storm-damaged
boat cover at home in Wisconsin before flying back east to Marblehead. As we sit down together in Eastern Yacht Club’s cosy lounge I swallow any complaints about my own three hours of driving… and ask for the Harken ‘origin story’. Instead, I get something even better:
Peter’s own life story – though that is so tightly intertwined with the company it’s almost impossible to separate the two threads. ‘My first love was the business,’ he admits, trying to explain why he never put more than ‘seven-eighths effort’ into sailing – or got married sooner. ‘It just was one step at a time. You discover this, put the foot forward; when you discover something else you put the other foot forward. That’s the way it is; just keep plodding along.’
Good winters lead to new sports Peter was born in Indonesia in 1937 and grew up in the Philippines. He went to the University of Wisconsin on a swimming scholarship; ‘I didn’t get there on brains!’ he insists, with the first of many gravelly chuckles. Cold weather was totally new to him, ‘and Madison had some pretty good winters when the whole lake freezes over. I started discovering sports like skiing and iceboat sailing.’ He claims he spent most of his academic years at either the ski club or the sailing club, rather than studying. He also adopted his famous dog, Mac,
from two girls who couldn’t keep a puppy in their dorm; the pair became inseparable. ‘He always sat outside my classes,’ Peter explains, before adding that his professors sometimes invited the 40lb mutt into the lecture hall. ‘I’d point up to the podium
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