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brian eiland · 12-08-2007, 05:11 PM

...in case you haven't seen the ads for this new 'coffee table book'..

"The Maltese Falcon"
by SuperYacht Art, 240 pages, hardcover. Published by TRP Magazines, printed by Butler & Tanner. 50.00 GBP.

The Maltese Falcon is certainly one of the world's most recognisable and impressive yachts, but I must confess that I was less than impressed with the look of it's superstructure. To my mind's eye, square rigs belonged on wooden vessels from the 1800's through the end of the clipper era. Tossing three columns of what appear at first glance to be updated Chinese Junk rigs onto a modern Perini Navi hull seemed, well, odd.

It wasn't until I viewed a long piece on the 60 Minutes television show about the boat and its owner Tom Perkins that I got past my prejudices to look a bit deeper into the technology behind the boat, and when this huge coffee table book landed with an audible thud on my desktop I began to look with real wonder at just how Perkins brought his childhood dreams to fruition:

"Cutty Sark was the iconic clipper, capable of running before strong trade winds at speeds over 20 knots and logging hundreds of miles per day. As a kid I studied her log books, which had been preserved and annotated by sailing historian Basil Lubbock. I must have been a hand aboard a clipper in some previous incarnation because I have always been drawn to these square-riggers. After decades of ownership of sailing yachts... I was still obsessed with the clipper square-rigger concept.

"So I wondered if it would be possible to bring forward the advantages of this design into the 21st century. Could one create a clipper which would be practical and not require dozens of young crew to set and hand her towering clouds of sail? My good friend Fabio Perini had built a superbly beautiful hull of 88m, but it remained unfinished. Might it be the platform for an entirely new idea? I asked Perini Navi to explore the clipper 'yacht' possibility. This triggered the submission of a plan by renowned Dutch naval architect Gerard Dijkstra which caught my attention."

The story of the build project and the engineering and programming needed to enable a single person to control all the sails and steering is astonishing. More than an engineering masterpiece, the rigging on the Maltese Falcon is functional sculpture. Wait until you see how the interior's been fitted out...

Thousands of photos from an array of world famous photographers including two of my favorites Carlo Borlenghi and Franco Pace.

This book is available for purchase by visiting superyachtart.

12-08-2007, 05:11 PM	#205
brian eiland Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Washington DC, Annapolis MD, Thailand Posts: 646	Coffee Table Book ...in case you haven't seen the ads for this new 'coffee table book'.. "The Maltese Falcon" by SuperYacht Art, 240 pages, hardcover. Published by TRP Magazines, printed by Butler & Tanner. 50.00 GBP. The Maltese Falcon is certainly one of the world's most recognisable and impressive yachts, but I must confess that I was less than impressed with the look of it's superstructure. To my mind's eye, square rigs belonged on wooden vessels from the 1800's through the end of the clipper era. Tossing three columns of what appear at first glance to be updated Chinese Junk rigs onto a modern Perini Navi hull seemed, well, odd. It wasn't until I viewed a long piece on the 60 Minutes television show about the boat and its owner Tom Perkins that I got past my prejudices to look a bit deeper into the technology behind the boat, and when this huge coffee table book landed with an audible thud on my desktop I began to look with real wonder at just how Perkins brought his childhood dreams to fruition: "Cutty Sark was the iconic clipper, capable of running before strong trade winds at speeds over 20 knots and logging hundreds of miles per day. As a kid I studied her log books, which had been preserved and annotated by sailing historian Basil Lubbock. I must have been a hand aboard a clipper in some previous incarnation because I have always been drawn to these square-riggers. After decades of ownership of sailing yachts... I was still obsessed with the clipper square-rigger concept. "So I wondered if it would be possible to bring forward the advantages of this design into the 21st century. Could one create a clipper which would be practical and not require dozens of young crew to set and hand her towering clouds of sail? My good friend Fabio Perini had built a superbly beautiful hull of 88m, but it remained unfinished. Might it be the platform for an entirely new idea? I asked Perini Navi to explore the clipper 'yacht' possibility. This triggered the submission of a plan by renowned Dutch naval architect Gerard Dijkstra which caught my attention." The story of the build project and the engineering and programming needed to enable a single person to control all the sails and steering is astonishing. More than an engineering masterpiece, the rigging on the Maltese Falcon is functional sculpture. Wait until you see how the interior's been fitted out... Thousands of photos from an array of world famous photographers including two of my favorites Carlo Borlenghi and Franco Pace. This book is available for purchase by visiting superyachtart.