Everybody wants to save the earth, nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.  --P.J. O'Rourke

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Maltese Falcon - What? No Sharks With Frikkin' Lazer Beams?




The Maltese Falcon is without question the most audacious sailing yacht in the world, and gets my vote for "Most Likely to Appear as a Villains Superyacht in a James Bond Movie". The last decent Bond superyacht would have been Nabila, Adnan Kashoggi's former boat. The time is right for a "Green" Bond villain, and this should be his ride, hell it's even got it's own submarine (sadly lacking frikkin lazer beams). The most impressive thing about the Falcon though is it's amazing sailing rig. Combining the best elements of the Junk Rig and Traditional Square Rigging, with a hefty dose of technology, the ship can purportedly be "sailed" singlehandedly. The sails on the Falcon automatically furl into the hollow masts, which unfortunately eliminates belaying pins and manly winches. There is effectively no "Rigging" in the traditional sense as the spars/yards are fixed to the masts which have no stays and rotate to trim the sails. Best of all it's for sale for the reasonable sum of 100m Euros, or, you can rent it for 300k Euros per week, give or take (Food and Drink NOT Included)

0 comments:

Post a Comment