Apr10
Mike Harker Passes Away
on April 10th, 2011American Mike Harker suffered a massive stroke and passed away April 8th in St Martin, French West Indies. Mike in his mid-60s wa about to sail from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean.
Mike 1st skied the Catalina Ski race at the age of 10yrs with a spectacular result of nineteenth overall. In 1966 he went on to win the overall race behind an 18ft Patterson called “The Ragged Edge”. The boat was driven by Mike’s uncle Sonny Krause with Curly Harker Mike’s dad in the observer seat.
Thanks to Denny Scales for providing the information and photos of Mike
Our thoughts are with Mike’s family and friends
Than you for posting this Karen.,…………..on the 2nd photo, I didn’t know you were going to publish this one with Mike Harker’s write up. We had a little BBQ at my ranch yesterday, kind of our own, “very un-official” Mike Harker memorial deal, just kinda came together at the last minute. BEFORE anybody chimes in here about Timmie Guckes’s catalina run in under 1 hour in 1966, pulled by Bob Nordskog, (hands out front, behind a 18 ft. flat bottom, btw)…You will not find this in the record books as whoever was running the race that year would not recognize it as a record because they didn’t do it in the boat they started with. Seem’s the 1st boat wasn’t running up to par so they turned around after they had started, dropped Tim, switched boats an headed out again, and finished in 54 minutes. Tim ran into Bob a few years back, sez Bob was still upset they didn’t give them the “official” record back then.
Denny
Thanks for all the tributes on Mike, he certainly was a remarkable guy.
Karen Brooks
Skirace.net