Maltese Falcon

A hull waiting for an owner

The Italian builder Perini Navi built a bare steel hull on speculation at its yard in Tuzla, Istanbul, around 1989 and 1990, but no buyer came forward. Years later the American venture capitalist and keen sailor Tom Perkins took an interest in it.

In 2001 he asked Dykstra Naval Architects to study nineteenth-century clipper ships and propose a modern square rig. The finished yacht, named Maltese Falcon, was completed in 2006.

How the DynaRig works

The DynaRig was first developed in the 1960s by the German engineer Wilhelm Prölss as a fuel-saving rig for cargo ships. Instead of fixed masts held up by wires, each mast stands on its own and rotates as a whole to set the sails at the best angle to the wind.

On the Maltese Falcon each of the three carbon fibre masts carries six curved yards, and the 15 square sails unfurl from inside the masts along tracks. Because there is no forest of wires, the deck stays unusually open.

Square sails are set at right angles to the length of the ship, unlike the triangular fore-and-aft sails on most modern yachts. Traditional square riggers needed large crews to climb the masts and handle ropes. The DynaRig keeps the look and power of a square rig while removing most of that manual work, which made it possible on a private yacht.

Sailing at the push of a button

Computers monitor wind speed and direction and display the data the crew needs, and the sails are set and trimmed hydraulically. The system is designed so that a single operator can handle the rig, although someone must always activate the controls.

Owners and crew have reported that the yacht can sail off her anchor and out of harbours under sail alone, something few vessels of her size attempt.

Why she matters

When she was launched, the Maltese Falcon was one of the largest and most technically complex sailing yachts in the world. She proved that a big square-rigged yacht could be handled by a modest crew.

The DynaRig idea has since been used on even larger sailing yachts. The Maltese Falcon herself has been operated as a charter yacht, which means that guests can book her rather than only admire her from the shore.

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