Knowing Harken takes years and years (Pt.I)

by John Curnow on 19 Sep 2016 You could imagine that being familiar with all that Harken produces and stands for is a lengthy process. So if you were going to be the person at the top in Australia, it would be best for you to have immersed yourself in sailing from an early age. When you grew up, being one of the technical service team would be more than a handy apprenticeship, as it were.

So taking time to understand the journey for Harken Australia’s Managing Director, Grant Pellew, is both interesting and a delight. Getting straight into it, Pellew tell us, “I've been in this role for three years now, and was the General Manager before that. I actually came here as a tech service guy six yeas ago. In reality, however, I had already been doing a very similar role when Carl Craaford had the distributorship back then.”

In that time Pellew has not only become familiar with the products, but also the corporate ethos. “Yes. Seeing the change of materials in our new blocks, which are made out of carbon, titanium, ceramics, and all the modern materials that are such a large part of it all.”

Like any good yachtie, Pellew had an interesting start to his nautical adventures, which commenced at Port Stephens. “I've done a lot of yacht racing in the past. My original background was in small catamarans. I got going in Hobie 14’s. A friend down the road had one. Well his dad did, anyway, and he did the afternoon races, which allowed my friend and I to do the junior race in the morning.”

“I enjoyed it a lot, so it just grew from there. Eventually I complained to my parents that I wanted my own boat. Eventually it happened, there were some tears involved, and a few little tantrums, but I got there by about 12 or 13 years of age. It was an older, wooden Flying Ant, and I was the only one at the club with one.”

“My family moved to Sydney just after my schooling had ended. By that stage I had a Maricat 4.3 and a licence, so I towed it around to races. Through that I met a few different people and got into yacht racing, with it all growing from that point on.”

Seeing the humour in it all, Pellew recounts, “At one stage I was sailing seven days a week during summer. It was kind of cool because I would just race off from work to go yachting. I had a very understanding boss in a stationery company at this stage. Then in ’98 I made up my mind to go off sailing for a year. I sort of went to my boss, and he sort of said, ‘Well look, I can't keep you employed for that, but if that's what you want to do, go do it. Come back and see me whenever you return, and we'll see if there's still a job here for you.’ I took off, went sailing and started a career out of it.”

A big class on the world stage at that time was Hobie 16s. Pellew raced them in the UK and Continental Europe and then it morphed into being a rigger on a classic boat and laying more than the odd coat of varnish. As Pellew says, “All of a sudden I'm a professional sailor and getting paid to go sailing all the time - it's great!”

He met his wife Katie (nee Spithill) when back here for a holiday. The two knew each other from Royal Prince Alfred YC, so even though he had to return to Europe, it was not long before he came back to Australia somewhat permanently.

I ended up part of the Wild Oats XI programme when they were building the 98’ (later 100-footer), which went over to Europe after launching. It was then that a random phone call from a friend who was with the United Internet Team Germany for the America's cup in 2007, whilst he was stationed in Porto Cervo. The upshot was ‘Do you want a job looking after all of the winches on the Cup boats?’ After all of that Pellew retuned once more and began his time with Harken.

So Pellew was well and truly experienced in the wide world of yachting by that point. He added a win in the Hobart with Bob Steel on the Nelson Marek 46, Quest, with whom he still catches up. What you get from all of that is an honest appreciation of small boats, large boats, old boats, and new boats, which is exactly what you need when you work for a company that has products spanning all of those categories.

“We do have a wide range of products that caters from your 8-foot Optimist to your 300-foot mega yacht. For me personally, I've gone back to Cats now. I did take some time off yacht racing, and got back via the A-class Cats, which is where I'm sort of spending most of my time. So I see the off the beach side of things at the moment, a lot more than the yacht sailing. Yet the best thing is that with such a great team of people here at Harken, there is always someone doing something else. Callum is far more involved in the yachts presently, so we talk and swap notes, learn and make sure we are across what is happening out there.”

“Obviously too, Harken has such a wide world ranging area of expertise that every lesson gets pumped into the product somehow. Everything gets a trickle down, so the original blocks we started making were sort of big boat blocks, where it was all about low friction. You take the friction out and it becomes easier to use. That then goes across the product lines.”

“The winches are also a prime example. We've taken the 2007 America's Cup winch and applied it to everything. Our old winches had big bronze castles inside, very heavy, well to an extent, and had a fair bit of maintenance involved. Now our radial winches are all alloy, so they're lightweight, and they've got plenty of robustness to them, which in turn makes them nice and easy to service.”

Now Harken actually manufacture their own winches as a result of being set to go just before the GFC. They built a new manufacturing plant in Pewaukee, just up the road from the old factory. In a Victor Kiam kind of moment they bought the company that had been doing all their work. Today, the new one in Pewaukee makes Harken blocks, tracks, traveller cars, and everything else, bar winches, which are made just near Lake Como, close to Milan in Italy.



Now Harken means different things to different sailors. Some it’s blocks, others travellers or cars, grinders or massive primaries. Pellew locates all the categories for us, “We start off with small boat blocks, which are little sixteen mil blocks, basically for all your dinghies. The great thing about the small blocks is they actually cover the whole range, because you end up with small blocks on big boats, every time you lift up a pipe cot, it's usually a small block and tackle system in there. So, it goes a big range of boat categories.”

“Then we go into mid-range. For each range we have, you have your blocks, you have your traveller cars, and your winches. Our next class would be the big boats. Ultimately in blocks we have four ranges really, because you could go to the mega yachts also. There are separate groups for travellers and batten car systems and then there are furlers. Here in Australia, and to an extent worldwide, we can fit your boat out from the bottom to the top, as we also team up with other leading manufacturers. Here in Australia we obviously have Harken, then Spinlock that do the rope jammers, and also Deckvest, which is life jackets and things like that. We now also bring in all the great Marlow cordage.”

“Rope's a really hard one because you can't put your name on it. So one piece of rope looks like another piece of rope. Therefore, it's about educating the end user regarding the different materials that are used within there, and how it's actually constructed, which is the main difference in rope.”

So if the dominance of Harken is quite significant, then Spinlock must be all conquering. “Yes. In clutches there really aren’t too many other brands out there. They do a very good job, and keep upgrading. Just a little while ago they moved to ceramic jaws after years with alloy. That was a trickle down from the Volvo boats actually. Back in '07 they started doing for that campaign as bit of a test really.”

“The gear does not get love you can say during a Volvo race, but they put the ceramic jaws in there, and where they would have been changing the jaws two, three times around the world, they basically didn't change them. They gripped the whole way around them. We've got one of those old boats here now, which is Blackjack, and she still has a set of jaws from the Volvo race!”

“They do cost more, but over time it evens out. That is the bit that people need to understand a little bit.” As for the perennial question, Pellew says, “Ideally yes, please take the load off the jammer before springing it and it will help the clutch last. Wind it on, open and let it out. You do look after the rope plus the jaw set in the clutch, so that's ideally why you'd do it. They are sort of designed so that in an emergency, yeah, you can bang it open and away it goes, but when not necessary, look after them.”

“The big one we've seen lately, and what a lot of people need to understand a little bit, is that with a clutch and an electric winch, it is very different. In a manual situation, you have a pull, then a break, then pull it again, etc. However, with an electric winch, say on a halyard, you just press a button and it keeps going and going. Now what happens is the jaw set, especially if it's alloy, just heats up, and it actually wears twice as fast, so your jaws do not last anywhere near as long. So, ideally whenever you're hoisting a sail from an electric winch, have the jaws set open.”

“It is not just cruising boats either. The same applies to the gorillas on the pumps for the primary. By opening it with six gorillas winding on the pumps, you take a lot of friction out of it, which left closed would make them very unhappy too. And those guys are usually pretty big, so you don't want to upset them.'

So with that we have the perfect place to take a pause for just a moment and then return with Knowing Harken takes years and years (Pt.II). Should you not be able to wait, then see www.harken.com.au for all the information on the products or to locate your nearest dealer. Call 02 8978 8666 to ask the team for their advice.