Death of Olaf Harken
Olaf Harken, co-founder of the famous Harken hardware brand, passed away on October 21, 2019, at the age of 80. He passed away in his sleep in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, where the company he founded with his brother Peter Harken is based.
Start-up in dinghy construction
Olaf Harken was born in Indonesia in 1939 to a Dutch father and a Swedish mother. After many moves and separations during the Second World War, the family finally ended up in San Francisco in 1946. With his brother Peter, they followed the family's moves across the United States and to the Philippines. Peter returns to study economics in Wisconsin, while Olaf graduates in engineering in Atlanta. Peter began building dinghies for the university market, joined in 1967 by his brother. Together they set up the Vanguard Boats shipyard, building these small sailboats. Peter soon took charge of the technical side of the business, while his brother managed the financial and administrative aspects. "When the company was just starting up, Olaf was in charge of the money. He kept the business going. If I'd been in charge, we'd have had big problems!" joked Peter.
Development of Harken pulleys
Dinghies were the setting for the invention that made the Harken brothers' reputation. Designed by Peter Harken for E-scows and ice carts when he was a student, his plastic ball-bearing pulleys are fast and considerably lighter than competitors with stainless steel bearings. They signed a manufacturing agreement with Accurate Products, which they acquired in 2010. Sold to Olympic champions Lowell North and Buddy Friedrichs, the pulleys gained in popularity and business took off.
Transition to large pleasure and racing boats
Vanguard's business continues. After the success of the 470s, licensed by the Harken brothers for the USA, the Finn continues to be very popular. On the hardware side, Harken, now independent of dinghy construction, turns to the market for larger boats. Using Torlon, a new type of plastic, in place of the softer Delrin used on smaller models, Harken is developing large pulleys to support the loads of larger yachts. After the application on the 12 M JI Sverige in the 1977 America's Cup, the sector expanded.
Barbarossa winches acquisition
The Harken brothers finally decided to specialize in rigging and sold the Vanguard shipyard in 1986. At the same time, they acquired the Italian winch manufacturer Barbarossa. The business expanded, and Harken winches, the first to offer carbon headstocks, equipped the two finalists in the 1995 America's Cup.
Expanded internationally with subsidiaries in France, Italy, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Poland, Harken has opened up to industrial markets, maintaining a leading position in the marine sector with its catalog of blocks, carts, winches and reefing-furling systems.
