AT THE FRONT of sailing from the cornfields of Pewaukee, Wisconsin
The Harken story has been full of twists, turns, successes, and reinventions, but through it all the goal of challenging the status quo and commitment to excellence has always remained the same.
The Early Years
The company today known as Harken can be traced back to the Harken brothers’ years in college. Peter Harken worked part-time at a Medical Electronics firm, staying after hours to design and build his own sailing hardware for his E-Scow and iceboats. One night some of the plastic ball bearings rolled off his bench and onto the floor. “I was amazed at how high they bounced,” he recalled. “The less mass, the faster things accelerate. That’s what pulleys do on a boat—stop and start all the time.” Peter replaced the stainless steel needle bearings in his pulleys with 1/4″ nylon ball bearings. His boats became the test platform for his designs, and as competitors saw Peter’s sails releasing faster and his equipment working more smoothly than theirs, word about the “black blocks with white plastic balls” began to spread.
After graduating from Georgia Tech University, Olaf did a stint in the Navy for 3 1/2 years as an officer on a destroyer in the North Pacific. His ship was one of the first combat ships in the Vietnam conflict. Upon his return in 1967, the brothers and a couple of friends started a short-lived boat building/ sail making/ball bearing block business called Scanda. However the sailing world did not beat a path to their door and Scanda was left with only one principle—Peter.
Olaf had taken an engineering job in New York City, but in 1967 he returned to Wisconsin to help Peter build boats for the college market. “Why I made that decision then I’ll never know,” said Olaf. Home for the newly formed Vanguard Boats (and later Harken Yacht Equipment) was a run-down garage in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The building had a small office in front with a 60-foot long garage behind, and an overhead door in the back. Inside the office were a couple of doors on saw horses used as desktops, an old typewriter, a telephone, and a file cabinet. A plastic polyethylene sheet separated the offices from the fiberglass and assembly area. A fan jammed in a window blew out the fumes. Needless to say OSHA was dumbfounded, but amazingly didn’t shut them down. Marketing consisted of all-night drives with Peter at the wheel and Olaf typing brochures in the back seat of an old Chevy wagon. That first year they made $3,800—together.
Peter and Olaf hadn’t forgotten about their homemade ball bearing blocks. In a fortuitous decision, they put blocks into an old cigar box and showed them to Gary Comer, an old friend and founder of Lands’ End, a marine mail-order business (now a North American clothing retailer). Gary said, “If I put them in my catalog, you’ll have to make them.” Gary also suggested they market the blocks under Harken rather than Vanguard because boat manufacturers might not want hardware labeled with the name of a competing boat builder. LeRoy and Al Stippich, owners of a tool and die business (Accurate Products), had rented their first shop to Peter and Olaf, and learned that they did not have the funds to get the expensive injection molds and stamping dies built for the full-scale production of their ball bearing blocks. The Stippich’s felt a kinship to Peter and Olaf. They saw two young brothers starting out like they did—with very little money. They offered to build the tooling at their expense and fabricate the blocks for them. The four made an agreement with a handshake that stood until Harken bought Accurate Products in 2010. Gary sold some of these early blocks to Lowell North and Buddy Friedrichs who were both Gold medalists (Star and Dragon) at the 1968 Olympics. Bruce Kirby, editor of One Design & Offshore Yachtsman (now Sailing World) let Peter and Olaf run an ad about their victory and wrote a tongue-in-cheek editorial that said Harken blocks were dangerous because they let the boom out so fast. “These diabolical devices are called Harken ball bearing blocks, and in my opinion it will take years for yacht designers to come up with boats fast enough to stay under the sails that are sheeted with them.” Some readers thought he was serious. The ensuing controversy got invaluable publicity and the block business took off.
Harken Today
Today Harken is a thriving global company with group offices around the world and distribution in 48 countries. Over its now almost 51 year history, the main focus has always been to design and produce high-load, rope handling equipment for sailboats. Harken blocks, winches, travelers, and furling systems dominate events like the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, and the Olympics, and are onboard everything from the smallest dinghies to the largest mega yachts.
Looking toward the future, Harken has built new, efficient facilities in the USA and Italy, and took ownership and responsibility for manufacturing by bringing it in-house. Sophisticated machinery, highly trained technicians, the innovative ideas of engineers, and enhanced workflow models open unlimited possibilities for growth. The growing Canvas division supplies customers with boating and industrial canvas products. Harken boat covers are custom measured and fit; the popular soft luggage line is designed and handmade here. Harken Canvas ramped up its industrial production with contract cutting and sewing for commercial businesses: law enforcement, medical, drilling industries, and entrepreneurial start-ups. The Harken Hoister is also going strong with a variety of garage storage lifting systems for canoes/kayaks, Jeep® and truck hard tops, bikes, and the popular SUP. Diversifying robotics and expanded manufacturing capabilities have allowed growth outside the sailing industry with our in-house machine shop supplying companies with valves, shafts, plates, terminals, and a myriad of other outsourced products. In another big move, Harken blocks, winches, traveler cars and rail systems, and furling technology is being adapted licensed and marketed under the rapidly growing Harken Industrial brand name. The low weight, strength, and compact sizes make these products the perfect choice when creating rope access and rescue systems for a range of industries: commercial marine, utility, rescue, wind power, architectural, and stage and theater to name a few.
As our business continues to expand, Harken has never strayed from our core values of product excellence and customer first approach—from the friendly voice that answers the telephone to one-on-one support from our expert technical and customer service staff. These guiding principles established by Peter and Olaf Harken all those years ago will never change as Harken looks to the future.
