Owner: (1969 – 1992) and. skipper of Wander Bird, an 83-foot-long two- masted schooner that had fallen on hard times on the Sausalito waterfront. Though the schooner had a long career as a pilot boat in the North Sea and had sailed around Cape Horn, when Mr. Sommer bought the vessel, it was being used as a houseboat and was sadly neglected.
Mr. Sommer and dozens of his friends, who included the actor Sterling Hayden, restored the Wander Bird, stepped new masts and sailed it again.
In 1995, the Smithsonian Institution selected the Wander Bird as the most significant vessel restoration done by a private individual in the United States.
“He was great to work for,” said Bill Martinelli, a Sausalito skipper who helped with the Wander Bird project. “When you worked with Harold, you always got a lesson in how to do things right, you got a sea story and a meal. If you needed a place to stay, he had a bunk for you, too.
“He was a friend and a mentor. He was a legend on the waterfront,” Martinelli said.