14 minute read
maltese falcon
Tom Perkins of Belvedere, who began sailing the Bay aboard a 17-ft Teak Lady, has launched "a retirement home" like no other. She's the magnificently sleek black-hulled 289-ft clipper yacht Maltese Falcon, the largest privatelyowned sailing yacht in the world. As you might expect, there are a lot of big numbers associated with Falcon. For instance, she has a waterline of 255 feet, displaces 1,240 tons, draws 34 feet with her board down, and motors at 18.5 knots. Yet we think her most impressive number is the smallest — one. That's the number of people needed to set her sails, tack and wear ship, reef, and furl her nearly 2,400 sq meters of sail. The secret is her Dynarig, which allows up to 15 modern square sails to be set from the yard arms of three unstayed rotating masts. Thanks to unprecedented sail and mast control technology, which Perkins was instrumental in developing, he can singlehandedly set or furl the entire sail plan in just five minutes. If only a minor depowering is required, it takes just 60 seconds to furl the royals, which reduces the load on the rig by 60%. Although Falcon is the only boat in the world with a Dynarig, and trimming the sail plan involves rotating the masts, Perkins says there is nothing complicated about it. "I could teach anyone to sail this boat in 10 minutes," he says.
Named after the 1929 Dashiell Hammett detective mystery set in San Francisco and the 1941 film noir version starring Humphrey Bogart, Maltese Falcon was launched by Italy's Perini Navi from their Yildiz yard in Istanbul. Falcon and her unique rig were subsequently shaken down on a sail to Malta, which will be her homeport, and then to Antibes, France. T h e r e aren't many berths that can accomFabio Perini and Tom Perkins — two quiet and thoughtful guys with the intelligence and passion to bring big dreams to life. modate a nearly 300ft yacht, so it was fortunate that the berth for Paul 'Microsoft' Allen's 416-ft motoryacht Octopus was available. Falcon then continued on to Spezia, Italy for her public "debut". From the first sail, Falcon earned rave reviews from her owner: "We literally sailed every inch from Istanbul to Malta, either beating to windward or on close reaches. The wind varied from Force 3 to Force 7, and we averaged 10 knots, occasionally hitting 16 on the close reaches. We rotated our masts and unfurled and furled our sails — mostly the royals and t'gallants, as required by the wind strength — literally hundreds of times without a single fault. Christian, our athletic spar master, only went aloft twice, just to check on things — and probably also to enjoy the ride 190 feet above the waves. We're obscenely proud of our new clipper yacht!"
Advertisement
Once at the Perini Navi-owned Beconcini Yard in Spezia, Perkins welcomed some 100 of his friends aboard, many of whom had travelled from Northern California for the occasion. No part of the boat was off limits, and Perkins, who is casual and friendly, clearly enjoyed sharing the spectacular creation with others. During a dinner he threw that night for all the guests at Porto Venere, Falcon was brought over and anchored off an ancient waterfront church. With her masts and yard
CARLO BERLENGHI
'Falcon's mast and sail trim are controlled from this console. The boat is steered with the little knob in the lower middle rather than a wheel.
arms illuminated, she had a massive and magnificent presence. Sausalito Knarr sailor Knud Wibroe, one of the dinner guests, told us he re-
WORLD'S LARGEST SAILING YACHT
COURTESY PERINI NAVI
membered when Perkins was just out of school in the late '50s, didn't have much money, and lived in an apartment on Buckley Avenue in Sausalito. "He had a 33-ft International One-Design near my 8-Meter Scandia," says Wibroe. 'That's a nice little boat you have,' I kidded him. We soon became friends. But he's come a long way with this yacht." Has he ever. Still very vigorous at age 74, Perkins has owned at least four more
sailboats after the IOD. He bought the famous 1939 Rhodes 48 Copperhead for offshore sailing in Northern California, then the 141-ft Perini Navi Andromeda La Dea and later the 154-ft Perini Navi Andromeda for cruising around the world. At the same time he owned the big Perinis, he campaigned the 1916 Nat Herreshoff 135-ft gaff-schooner Mariette in classic regattas in the Med, in the Caribbean, and across the Atlantic. Well known in the classic yacht circuit for his superb sense of style, Perkins also restored the 122-ft classic motoryacht Atlantide, which he still owns. But none of these yachts can compare with the dazzling Falcon, a yacht which had a bit of history before she was even launched. The steel hull was built about a dozen years ago for a Perini Navi client who eventually backed out, so it just sat. About five years later, Perkins happened to be cruising around Turkey with his daughter aboard Andromeda, and decided to stop by the yard. That's the first time he saw the hull, which was intended to have gotten a staysail schooner rig. Not needing to own a fourth large yacht, Perkins nonetheless thought the 289-ft hull could be made into a terrific vessel for the right owner. Through Perini, he'd become friends with one of the biggest names in international media, and suggested that he buy it. Perkins even had a name and a purpose for the boat — she could be called Atlantic Cloud, and could go after many
Spread; 'Maltese Falcon' in all her glory. Above; From the main stairway, you can look up through three decks to the top of the main mast.
MALTESE FALCON —
of the world's great sailing records. Alas, this candidate didn't have the same passion for sailing and innovative yachts as Perkins, and declined. But by this time Perkins was having a harder time ignoring the possibilities.
Perkins has had a long and brilliant career in both technology and business. He graduated from MIT with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in '53, and four years later graduated from Harvard Business School. In '63, he was approached by Bill Hewlett and David Packard to become the administrative head of research at Hewlett-Packard, and is credited with getting that company into computers. But that was just the beginning. In 1972, he co-founded Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers, one of the first and most famous venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. That lead to his very active participation in a number of the best known tech and biotech companies in the world. Perkins is the only person to have ever been the chairman of three New York Stock Exchange-listed companies at the same time. This included Genetech for about 14 years, Tandem Computers for about 12 years, and Acuson for about five years. He was also on the board of about a dozen other major companies. But by the late '90s, Perkins had cut back on his work load somewhat, allowing him more time to muse about the 289-ft hull in Turkey. Employees and business associates remember him sending messages about the boat at 3 a.m. from Turkey. But as he would ultimately tell Fabio Perini, owner of Perini Navi, "I need a project, not another yacht." He would eventually get what he needed. Perini, an Italian inventor and businessman, seems to have been cut from a similar cloth as Perkins, both in demeanor and gumption.
Having become very successful in making machinery for the paper industry — Perini sold his first machine at age 17 — he was nonetheless curiously disturbed by the fact that wealthy people began to opt for large motoryachts rather than grand sailing yachts after World War II. He analyzed the situation and decided the primary reason is because big sailing yachts required so many crew. So in 1983, he decided to try to do something about it by going into the boatbuilding business with the creation of the 125-ft Felicita. She featured key invention of captive reel winches — which was based on technology derived from winding tissue paper! — but also had a flybridge and an unusually large amount of habitable space. Perini Navi has built and/or is building a total of 45 sailing yachts between 130 and 180 feet, and commands over 60% of the 150-ft+ sailing yacht market.
This is the bed in the owner's 'passage cabin', which is directly behind the wheelhouse. The owner's main cabin is two decks down.
Spread; Imagine sailing rail down aboard a 1,250-ton yacht. Inset; The long and narrow 'Falcon' and her Dynarig as seen from above.
WORLD'S LARGEST SAILING YACHT
For Perkins, who is passionate about cutting edge technology, the decision about whether to go ahead with the Falcon project hinged largely on the feasibility of the Dynarig. For if successful, it would not only allow push button mast and sail control, but would also eliminate the need for any lines, winches, or cleats on deck. The problem was that the Dynarig, conceived to help German commercial shipping save fuel in the '70s, had never gone beyond the theoretical stage. With Perkins putting up the money, he, Perini, and renowned Amsterdam naval architect Gerard Dijkstra began doing extensive research on the concept. Once Perkins became convinced that the system would ultimately work, he made the decision to go ahead with the entire project. But even after the initial research on the Dynarig, there was no money-back guarantee that it would be a success. In fact, two associates in the Dijkstra office spent three more years perfecting the basics of the system. And there was still a lot of work that had to be done after both small and full scale models had been built.
COURTESY PERINI NAVI The next hurdle was actually building the three gigantic masts. As Perkins told us, the original Dynarig concept could not have worked on Falcon because of limitations of the materials available in the '70s. "If these masts had been made of aluminum," he said gesturing to Falcon's masts, "they would have failed within a week." Fortunately, carbon fiber is now a proven product and has the qualities necessary for Falcon's masts. For example, the tops of the unstayed masts are designed to fall off more than 10 feet. Perini didn't want to have anything to do with building the unusual masts and yard arms, which have three radii and had to include countless sensors. So it was left to Perkins to hire Insensys of England and create a major mastbuilding facility at the yard in Istanbul. Before work could be started, however, Perkins had to place the largest order ever — other than from manufacturers of military aircraft — for carbon fiber. Overseeing the development of the mast-making as well as the construction of Falcon was no small task. According to Kathy Jewett, Perkin's assistant, in the 5.5 years it took to complete the yacht from the existing hull, he flew to Turkey at least 100 times. Fortunately, it wasn't always from California, as Perkins also maintains Plumpton Place, an estate south of London that once belonged to Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page. One of the most amazing aspects about the creation of Falcon is how much risk Perkins was willing to assume to build such an innovative yacht. After all, it was entirely possible that after spending tens of millions of dollars, the Dynarig wouldn't work. Indeed, it's still unproven to the extent that it's not been tested in the kinds of heavy winds and seas that might cause the kind of mast torquing that would threaten to tear the hull apart — such as happened to Team Phillips. And it's not as though Falcon could be rerigged as a staysail schooner or a ketch. As such, investing in Falcon was, like investing in a high tech start up, a calculated risk.
This is not to suggest
The view of the sitting area on the front part of the aft deck. The deck support base for the aft mast was cleverly designed.
When her masts and yard arms are illuminated at night, the beautiful 'Falcon' has a monumental presence.
that Falcon is a mere technological wonder, because she's also beautifully styled and opulent. The exterior and interior styling were done by Ken Freivokh of London, and are smashing in a very contemporary way. When people go to the christening of a boat, they're always complimentary in order to be polite. But this is one case where the guests were sincere in their compliments — even if their personal tastes ran more toward the classic interior of a gaff schooner such as Mariette. The entertaining Freivokh, who was born in L.A. but grew up in Peru, explained that absolutely everything on the boat was custom designed and built — right down to the toilet bowl brushes with carbon fiber handles! It was an immense amount of work that occupied him and several of his staff almost full time for the better part of several years. "We did about 200 CAD drawings, each one having about 150 designed items in them." Freivokh's work has to be seen to be
MALTESE FALCON —
appreciated. The only fault we could find was with a small area of leather floor covering. It was a little slippery. Who knows, maybe they don't make nonskid leather.
Falcon is also the home to many pieces of original art, some of them quite unusual. One is a series of objects on the floor that we were told represented the five senses. It was pretty abstract, because there were six objects. Another sculpture, this one in the owner's main cabin, is of a face that appears to intentionally be a cross between a moai, which are the big statues on Easter Island, and the face of Homer Simpson.
While it only takes one person to sail Falcon, she needs 16 crew. The positions are: Captain (Chris Carter), First Officer, Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer, 3rd Engineer IT, Second Officer, Spar Master, Bosun, Deckhand, Chief Stewardess, Second Stewardess, Sports Massage Therapist, Stewardess, Chef, and Second Chef. But even with 16, it's an enormous task to keep such a large yacht running and her flawless finish clean. Since Perkins can't use Falcon all the time — "I have to get back to work in California in a couple of months" — she's available for charter for a maximum of 12 guests. Several of the world's premiere charter agents were at the debut, and indicated they had clients who would be very interested — even at the base rate of 335,000 euros/week. Nonetheless, Perkins plans to spend as much time as he can aboard Falcon. She'll be crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean in November, but after that his plans aren't clear. He and Joe Vittoria have tossed around the idea of a race between Falcon and the 247-ft Mirabella, and he's thought about taking a shot at some course records, but for the near future he intends to use her as nothing more than a retirement home. Perkins is completely aware of the massive scale of the Falcon project. In fact, he calculated that his boat took 5% of the man hours required to build the King Cheops pyramid in Egypt — "but that was a 20-year public works project." He's also aware of how it might appear to others, but doesn't seem to be bothered by it. During Falcon's debut, the signal flags that ran from the bow to the top of the mast to the transom read, "Rarely does one have the privilege to witness vulgar ostentation displayed on such a scale."
COURTESY PERINI NAVI
'Falcon's three tenders — 'Miss Ruth Wonderly', 'Miss Leblanc' and 'Brigid O'Shaughnessy' — are named after female characters in the fi lm.
— latitude/richard
The Bay Area's Finest Canvas Dodgers
Biminis, Covers, Enclosures
Better materials, better workmanship
Our Customers Say It Best:
1230 Brickyard Cove Road, #106 Pt. Richmond, CA 94801
In Brickyard Cove Marina
(510) 234-4400 Introducing
12volt air-conditioning from Glacier Bay
Get reliable, powerful air conditioning directly from your 12v or 24v battery, engine alternator, DC generator or shore power battery charger. DC Breeze gives you: . 5k Btu/hr of air conditioning . Direct 12v or 24 volt DC input - no inverter . High energy efficiency . 3-speed operation . Digital thermostat available www.dcbreeze.com
Glacier Bay, Inc. 2845 Chapman Street Oakland, CA94601 (510) 437-9100 Fax (510) 437-9200 e-mail ja@glacierbay.com
