A Charmed Life- the Mike Harker story

by Colin Patterson on 3 Aug 2007 Fancy cruising with a couple of Miss Universe contestants who can cook? What about a crew of international beauties that are quite happy to take their clothing off and let you take stunning photographs of them? Or perhaps you would prefer the solitude of a sailing a magnificent yacht solo around some of the world’s loveliest destinations.

American Mike Harker has done all these things and more, and is at the Sydney International Boat Show (2-7 August) giving regular talks about his amazing life. (he is on the Boating Stage at 3:30pm each day) And it’s only fair to say that massive waves of envy were emanating from many male members of the audience…

Mike’s Dad was a champion motor biker and so was his Mum. If you’ve seen the Anthony Hopkins movie ‘World’s fastest Indian’ you’ll have a good idea of what his Dad was like: same era, same bikes and a bloody fast rider with a number of national championships to his name.

The entire family was competitive and liked going fast, whatever the sport. They excelled at a number of sports including waterskiing, motor biking, hang gliding and power boating. Their local paper carried a story with them surrounded by trophies and the headline read ‘America’s most winning-est family.’

Somewhere in this upbringing Mike got a taste for adventure: the die was cast and his life was never going to be standard. He also had an enormous amount of natural luck: after his draft into the Army during the Vietnam Era, he ended up with a military job teaching water skiing in Bavaria. After his discharge he worked in Miami’s film and television and then retired aged 55.

In 2001 his Aunt called him and told him that her husband had died, leaving a 26ft trailer sailer in a shed in Newport Beach. His uncle had lovingly maintained the boat for 32 years, and his Aunt told him that the boat was now his if he wanted it.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, this small boat was to be his introduction to the cruising lifestyle.

He arrived in Newport with no knowledge about sailing but a thirst for adventure. His self confidence stood him in good stead at this point: he basically said to himself ‘how hard can it be? I can figure it all out.’ He started rigging the little boat and was interrupted by three young men who happened to be passing. ‘Would you like some help?’ they politely asked. ‘No’ he said, smiling ‘I’m fine.’

‘We don’t think you are’ said one of the young men, who owned a similar yacht.

Mike realised that he had put the mast on back to front.

His first sail was a similar combination of blind luck and an almost unthinkable level of self confidence. He set out in his yacht and ended up sailing to Catalina Island, a trip of quite some distance. Why had he chosen to travel so far on his maiden voyage? Because he couldn’t figure out how to turn the boat around. Some helpful locals helped him tie up to a buoy and he headed back home the next day.

Next weekend he was out on the water to try again. This time the wind was blowing from a different direction, so he headed south. It was a similar situation: late in the day he arrived at a harbour and tied up to a dock.

The next morning he was woken up by a knock on the window and a man’s voice. ‘What are you doing here?’ the voice asked angrily. Mike had tied up to the dock of a used boat brokerage. He got talking to the yacht broker, and though he had no intention of buying a second boat, and allowed himself to be shown around the dealer’s range of second hand Hunter yachts.

The dealer then asked him if he would like to buy a Hunter 34 worth $110,000 (US). Mike asked him, not intending to be taken seriously, whether he would accept $60,000 plus trade in of his Uncle’s old trailer sailer. To his surprise, the broker accepted, and he sailed away with a two year old cruising yacht.

(Again Harker’s luck was a factor: the yacht brokership was in receivership and was being taken over by another company. The broker knew that he would only get a small percentage of the value of his second hand stock when the new company took over, so he was prepared to sell at a huge discount. Harker just happened to be in the right place at the right time: it was a true fire sale.)

Harker sailed the yacht to Mexico and spent a few months cruising about. He found himself a bit bored so he called a television producer that he used to work with and asked him if he was interested in making a tv series about the cruising lifestyle? The producer said ‘yes, but it would have to be set in Europe.’

So Harker traded in his Hunter 34 for $95,000 and in 2002 sailed away in his newly acquired Hunter 46.

What follows next is the stuff of masculine fantasy. He cruised some of the most beautiful destinations on the planet, with sojourns in Africa, California and Tahiti, and possessed an amazing ability to pick up stunning female crew along the way. At one point he had two Miss Universe contestants on board, who apparently cooked the most delicious meals, and they were followed by a succession of stunning young women.

Last year he brought a Hunter 49 at a boat show and continued his journeying. He says that is favourite cruising spots have been the islands of San Blas and Pearl in Panama, and the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. He described that Panama Islands as a ‘paradise.’

‘There’s no hotel there’s not even an airport: there’s just nature. And any little village you come into you’re like the talk of the town… I bring Halloween candy for the kids and I bring trading goods like pocket knives or cigarette lighters and different things that I’ll trade for fruit. I don’t need the fruit, but I like to keep that co-operation and everybody opens up to you.’

After his presentation at the Sydney International Boat Show, where the audience was clearly stunned by the content of Harker’s slide show, we took him aside for an interview. Our first question was predictable: how did he manage to effortlessly achieve a lifestyle that some people would kill for?

Harker smiled and responded with his gentle North American twang:

‘That’s what people say ‘oh wow I’d love to do that!’ and ‘oh, that’s been a dream of mine forever.’ Well, it never was a dream of mine, I just sort of fell into it. But if you really want to, and here’s an advertising slogan from Nike, ‘just do it.’

We then asked: how did he learn to sail without any prior experience or anyone to teach him?

‘I had been a very good hang glider so I knew about sails, flying horizontally but I just figured out vertically how to trim a sail. I trim a sail very well and I get the boat moving fast through my hand gliding experience.’

And how was he able to afford the cruising lifestyle?

Apparently he rents out a couple of investment properties in Miami, and ‘sails cheap’. He’s a strong believer in the ‘wind is free’ philosophy, and despite that distance he has travelled in his latest boat, has only 18 hours on the engine.

Then we moved onto the million dollar question: how did he manage to talk a gorgeous succession of young women into posing for the most intimate of images?
(His slide show at the Sydney Boat Show was punctuated by droll comments like ‘and here’s Angelina and Crystal on a secluded beach in Ibiza, and there’s my yacht in the background.’)

Harker agreed that this ability was based on his easy going manner: he is the sort of person that is quickly able generate trust. He looks people directly in the eye, smiles a lot and has low key good manners; he opens doors for women and speaks with a quiet courtesy.

‘I’m non threatening. I don’t force myself on anything or anyone. And I leave myself open.’

He added that clean clothes, fairly clean shoes