Tom Perkins' $100 million high-tech yacht

July 17, 2006 | Matt Marshall

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins, basically retired after decades of successful investments in companies like Genentech and Compaq, has unveiled his latest toy: A $100 million yacht, The Maltese Falcon, a 287-foot vessel that evokes a 19th century clipper ship.

But this one brings nautical technology to new heights, reports Mercury News colleague Therese Poletti. Each of its three 187-foot carbon-fiber masts has five sails that can form one continuous sail.

Perkins, who made a splash earlier this year after penning a book, Sex and the Single Zillionaire, has been working on the yacht for five years.

It uses new hydraulics technology, to help with sail-alignment, developed by Insensys, an English company backed by 3i, a firm with offices in Menlo Park.

We’ll update later with picture of the yacht.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.