founded waukesha wisconsin usa 1967 founders peter harken olaf harken headquarters portsmouth rhode island usa website www.laserperformance.com vanguard sailboats was one of the most successful sailboat builders . it was founded in 1967 and is now owned by laserperformance . contents 1 history 2 today 3 sailing community 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit vanguard sailboats was founded in 1967 in waukesha wisconsin usa by peter and olaf harken . the brothers started to gain attention after their sailing hardware was used on boats that won olympic gold in 1968 and after vanguard supplied the finn class for several countries in the 1976 olympics . the hardware segment was maintained somewhat separately as it was marketed to competing boat builders . in 1986 the harkens sold vanguard to stephen clark who moved the business to rhode island . the brothers focused their efforts on the performance sailing hardware business in pewaukee wi under the name harken inc. while vanguard continued in boat building . in march 1997 vanguard sailboats inc. bought sunfish laser inc. which built the laser sunfish and 49er sailboats . 1 2 in 2007 vanguard sailboats was acquired by performance sailcraft europe . the combined company is known as laserperformance . today edit laserperformance now builds and sells a wide range of racing and recreational sailboat dinghies including the laser laser pico sunfish 49er club fj club 420 vanguard 15 dart 16 and optimist . 3 their most famous boat models are the sunfish created by alexander bryan and cortlandt heyniger in 1952 under the name alcort and the laser designed by bruce kirby in 1970 . laserperformance manufactures 17 classes including several olympic classes . sailing community edit laserperformance is very active in the sailing community and is a major sponsor of the intercollegiate sailing association the organization that governs college sailing in north america . most colleges and universities sail fleets of 420s flying juniors or vanguard 15s . additionally laserperformance is a sponsor of many adult and junior sailing regattas . see also edit laserperformance list of sailboat designers and manufacturers references edit http www.sunfishclass.org about the sunfish class history http www.iboats.com vanguard sailboats nb m2485 y2012 http na.laserperformance.com home external links edit company website v t e boats marketed by laserperformance one person dinghies laser 4.7 laser bug laser funboat laser pico laser radial laser standard laser vago sunfish vapor optimist two person dinghies club 420 bahia laser vago multihulls dart 16 keelboats laser stratos keel discontinued models dart 15 dart 20 stampede dart 6000 dart hawk f18 laser 2 laser 13 laser 16 laser 28 laser 4000 laser 5000 laser eps laser stratos centreboard laser vortex no longer associated with laser dart 18 laser sb3 sb20 laser 2000 laser 3000 v3000 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title vanguard sailboats & oldid 688237278 categories american boat builderswater sports equipment manufacturers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 october 2015 at 15 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view