It is with a real sense of loss that we heard the news on Tuesday that Olaf Harken had passed away after a long struggle with Parkinson\u2019s disease. He was 80. Olaf, with his brother Peter, was the founder of Haken Marine, a company whose products have touched just about every sailor who has raised a sail, turned a winch or trimmed a mainsheet in the last 50 years.\u00a0 Whether you are a 10-year old in an Optimist pram or an America\u2019s Cup sailor flying on foils, you probably have Harken equipment on the boat. If you are a cruiser who never races, you still are likely have Harken winches, Harken blocks and Harken line jammers aboard.<\/p>\n
Olaf was known and liked by everyone in the marine industry. His quiet nature and subtle sense of humor were appreciated by all, as were his many contributions to the world of sailing. I got to know Olaf well in the late 1980s when we worked together with others in the marine industry to found what is today known as Sail America. The organization, for the first time, gave the many companies that form the sailing industry their own association with its own unified voice to promote sailing in all its forms.\u00a0 The association grew and for many years ran the huge sailboat show in Atlantic City. From inception to full fledged existence, Olaf was a singular leader of Sail America and of the sailing industry.<\/p>\n
The Harken company emailed a press release obituary on Tuesday morning that covers, with grace and humor, the full story of Olaf\u2019s life, family and many achievements. He will certainly be missed and remembered with a smile and gratitude. Read more here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olaf Theodore Harken<\/p>\n
May 6, 1939 to October 21, 2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olaf died where he lived most of his adult life, in Pewaukee Wisconsin.\u00a0He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Ruth, three daughters, four granddaughters and one grandson. Preliminary plans include a visitation and service Saturday morning, October 26 at Galilee Lutheran Church in Pewaukee, followed immediately by a celebration at Harken corporate headquarters. For overseas friends, another celebration of Olaf\u2019s life will be held during the annual METS show in Amsterdam in November.<\/p>\n
Olaf Harken and his older brother, Peter, created the hugely successful rope handling business that bears their name, by working hard, delivering excellence, and having fun every day. Harken, Inc. makes marine hardware, hydraulics and winch systems for racing and cruising sailboats of all types and sizes. Industrial hardware applications include the commercial marine, architectural, and rope access and rescue industries.<\/p>\n
The brothers took a lot of chances over the years \u2013 and employees are encouraged to do the same.\u00a0When Olaf Harken was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2014, along with Peter, he explained the brothers\u2019 business philosophy: \u00a0\u201cWhen trying new stuff our rule is to ask, ‘if it all goes bad, can we survive?’ \u00a0Then we go to the bar and forget what we just said and do it anyway!\u201d<\/p>\n
Olaf and Peter quickly learned that the real fuel behind a company’s success is its people. \u201cPeter and I were not very smart,\u201d Olaf said in his 2015 memoir\u00a0Fun Times in Boats, Blocks & Business<\/em>, \u201cbut we did know that success is linked directly to trust and treating people with dignity, and maybe a little sprinkling of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 being at the front remains. Today at Harken, Peter Harken told an assembly of Harken members, \u201cMy brother did all the hard work so I could have all the fun. During the days when the company was just getting going, Olaf was in charge of the money. He kept us in business. If I had been in charge of that, we would have been in big trouble. His legacy is in this culture. So, let\u2019s just keep doing what we do. Just keep getting better. You are a great family. Thanks a lot. He\u2019ll be watching you, so no sloughing off!\u201d<\/p>\n Today at Harken, Bill Goggins, CEO Harken read this passage from Olaf\u2019s autobiography in remembrance. \u201cPeter and I have long believed there is a word that should apply to almost every action and decision. That word is honesty. I got my first lesson in honesty shortly after we started the business\u2014back when we were building those first six boats for Ohio State University. Like almost every boatbuilder, we were behind by quite a few weeks. When our customers called and wanted to know when we were going to deliver, I lied. I said they would be ready in about a week. Peter overheard me and was furious. He made me call them back and tell them I was wrong, that we were further behind and would not be able to deliver for a few more weeks. This was very embarrassing, but it taught me a good lesson. For one thing, I didn\u2019t have to keep on lying each week. Taking the beating once is a lot easier than building one lie on top of another. It\u2019s not easy to do and the customer is going to be angry or disappointed, but that\u2019s the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Goggins also said, \u201cYou couldn\u2019t have scripted a nicer weekend for Olaf than the one just past.\u00a0Pewaukee Yacht Club honored Olaf on Saturday night with a Lifetime Achievement Award to a full house standing ovation.\u00a0He rose, walked to the front and accepted the award with his usual grace and dignity. The evening was highlighted by Olaf and Ruth on the dance floor. Sunday was a simple Packer game with his family and then, a remarkable chance 30-minute walk with his brother in the sunshine.\u00a0He died peacefully in his sleep with his loved ones nearby.\u00a0The company mourns his loss; however the company celebrates his life by doing what we do\u2026every day\u2026into a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n Olaf Harken was born of Dutch and Swedish parents in Indonesia at the beginning of World War II.\u00a0In 1941 the Japanese attacked Indonesia. During the fighting and nightly bombings, Peter, Olaf, and their Swedish mother managed to escape to Borneo. Their Dutch father, Joe joined the very small Dutch army and helped fight the Japanese until his capture. Joe was imprisoned for five years and was not liberated until the end of the war. Meanwhile, Peter, Olaf, and their mother Ulla lived first in Borneo, were then troop-shipped to New Zealand for a year, to Australia for another year, and finally shipped to San Francisco in 1944. Here they were miraculously reunited with their father in 1946 after the war was over.<\/p>\n After studying at Georgia Tech, Olaf Harken took 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.<\/p>\n Inside the office were a couple of doors on sawhorses used as desktops, an old typewriter, a telephone, and a file cabinet. A plastic sheet separated the offices from the fiberglass and assembly area. 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.<\/p>\n The Harkens aren\u2019t sure exactly when the turnabout happened, but Olaf the engineer ended up running the business side of Harken Inc., with Peter the economist handling design and production. \u201cPeter designed the blocks, and knew more about manufacturing than me,\u201d Olaf said. \u201cOlaf was more patient, better at the business than me,\u201d Peter said. \u201cEach of us was better at the other guys\u2019 education. We kept it quiet, figuring people wouldn\u2019t want blocks designed by an economist.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is with a real sense of loss that we heard the news on Tuesday that Olaf Harken had passed away after a long struggle with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1095],"class_list":["post-12707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cruising-news","tag-olaf-harken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12709,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12707\/revisions\/12709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}