Maltese Falcon- World's Longest Yacht Sails 'Home'

by BW Media Roundup on 28 Sep 2008 San Francisco Bay Area residents got a glimpse at one of the most luxurious private yachts in the world as it made its way through San Francisco Bay yesterday (Saturday).

While it is owned by American Tom Perkins, a legendary Silicon Valley figure, this is the first time that the yacht has entered a port in the USA - and it won't be sailing under Sydney Harbour Bridge any time soon.

The 289-foot Maltese Falcon had to sail under the monstrous Golden Gate Bridge at around 2:15 p.m. during low tide so the yacht's 191-foot masts could squeeze under the bridge.

Considered the most technologically advanced yacht in the world, the Maltese Falcon's computer-controlled masts have 15 sails that cover nearly a 26,000-square foot sail area. Tom Perkins had it built in Turkey two years ago.

The super yacht will be part of the Leukemia Cup Regatta next weekend, a two-day fundraising event by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and will dock in Richardson Bay in view of its owners home.

In the exclusive world of grandiose yachts, Tom Perkins seems to have the most grandiose of all.

At Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the venture capital firm Perkins co-founded in 1972, he made millions financing companies like Netscape and Genentech when they were still young. He has recently made headlines as the Hewlett-Packard director who resigned from the board in 2006 after discovering the corporate spying scandal.

The Maltese Falcon is, when measured at the water line, the longest privately owned sailboat in the world, according to David A. Kaplan, who hung out with Mr. Perkins and wrote 'Mine’s Bigger: The Extraordinary Tale of the World’s Greatest Sailboat and the Silicon Valley Tycoon Who Built It.'

Jim Clark and Barry Diller claim theirs are longer when counting the bowsprit, which sticks out from the front of boats, but that is not the standard industry measurement.

'The issue of length is important to all these guys, and the way you know that’s the case is how often they tell you that length is not important,' said Mr. Kaplan, who sailed on the Maltese Falcon on its maiden voyage from Istanbul, where it was built, around the Greek Islands to the French Riviera.

The boat is, of course, a symbol of Mr. Perkins’s fierce competitiveness and outsize ego, as Mr. Kaplan describes in the book. But Mr. Perkins is different from other multimillionaire Silicon Valley yacht owners, Mr. Kaplan said. 'One of the charms of Tom Perkins is he really loves sailing,' he said. He sailed dinghies in college and when he races his sailboats, he sails himself instead of sitting in the back of the boat with a cocktail while the crew does the work, Mr. Kaplan said.

While traveling on the Maltese Falcon in the Mediterranean, Mr. Kaplan recalled, he flew out of bed at 3 a.m. when the boat heeled. He went out to see what happened, and found Mr. Perkins sailing the yacht in his pajamas.

'He had said to the crew, ‘Let’s put up more sails and see how fast we can go,’' Mr. Kaplan said. 'He was having the time of his life.'

The Maltese Falcon is as long as a football field, with three computerized masts that are 20 stories tall. It contains a huge gym, staterooms for 12 guests and space for 24 crew members. The decor, while luxurious, is different from that of most yachts, Mr. Kaplan said. It is high-tech, metallic and industrial-looking — more Star Trek than teak.

'In the very small, rarefied world of mega-yachts, this boat, much like Perkins, elicits very strong reactions, positive and negative,' Mr. Kaplan said.

Chartering the Maltese Falcon:

The Maltese Falcon is a 286' Perini Navi that is available for charter. You'll need to find a few dollars, but you should be quite comfortable:

It has a state-of-the art carbon fibre Falcon Rig, impressive speedboats, submarines and more, there is no other yacht on the high seas like it. In a breeze her immense rig powers her to record shattering speeds, up to 28 knots!

Falcon's interior is luxurious with a rich contemporary decor. She has six double cabins, 2 with queen berths and 4 with king berths, all with ensuite baths, showers and heads.

If you like large scale entertaining, it's an ideal choice, and perfect for meandering between smart anchorages. Alternatively what about a once-in-a-lifetime blue water ocean passage? Atlantic crossings in ten days are on offer from this extraordinary yacht.

She is stopping at San Francisco as part of a circumnavigation of the world, with stops in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, the South Pacific, South America, Cape Horn and more.