Blockhead Tour of Harken

And So...

My dad works at Harken, so maybe that’s why I was one of the very first Blockheads. Sometimes he tries things out on me—whether I volunteer to do them or not. I’m not an amazing sailor. I learned in an El Toro. I don’t race. I do take sailing at camp and I like it, but I see so many great sailors in Blockheads, it can be kind of intimidating. Anyway, I had to get up annoyingly early to go to work in early June, but I needed some money.

Then someone suggested we take a look around the factory. That sounded like a nice break from filing…until someone brought a camera and started taking pictures—of me. Borderline cheesy… But then it actually got pretty interesting.

Machines!

There are giant metal fabricating machines where they drill and mill and cut metal into the biggest Harken equipment for big boats.

Recycling is Fun-damental

They recycle ALL of the metal they don’t use.

Plastic Magic

There are giant green machines that spit out parts of Carbo blocks. They're called injection molding machines.

Parts & Parts & Parts

Some parts of the factory have inventory stacked up.
This is like a candy store for sailors.

Puting it all together..

My favorite part was “Assembly” where blocks and cam cleats get…assembled. The people doing this build like 20 pieces of equipment at once while carrying on a conversation with you…all at the same time. It’s pretty amazing how good they get with that much practice.

That's all folks!

Around every corner there is something amazing to see.

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