Awesome sailing ship
 

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/15-07/ff_boat

so hatty.. when you going to get one like that?

as Borat would say "WAA WAA WEEE WOO."

That thing is hideous.

I sailed on a brigantine about 8 years ago. If I had that much money at 70, I'd build a traditional square rigged vessel and have it crewed by nubile 20 yr old female able semen.

I understand how it all works, I understand how the masts were built and the engineering that went into it but...Unstayed masts scare the hell out of me. Give me some standing rigging please.

With eyepatches and parots on there...ahem...shoulders. Sabres would be optional. Clothes would not.

It's hard to tell from the pics but it looks like the one that was featured on Mega Yachts. (If it is) the guy that commissioned it died before taking delivery and some fashion industry woman owns it now. It moves right along at full sail.

That reminds me of the yacht the guy who started Netscape built. It was all run by SGI computers. That sounds like a nightmare in the making to me.

The article mentioned that the guy didn't want the boat to be manned by computers but it is. There is no manual rigging or manual control of the sails? Is a 70 year old guy going to turn the 30 ton main mast....I would like to meet his personal trainer. :D

If you get a fishing smack I can be the assistant baiter,and that trucker fellow can be the masterba........forget I said that:mad:

Insane ... the dining area is kind of neat though ...:pleased:

Ha!

I visited this ship in the late 1950's when she visited Cartegena. My Dad went for a week-long cruise on her.

There's a square rigged sailing vessel that sails from Argentina to Antartica thru the Straits of Magellan. I'd like to make that passage someday.

I crewed on this brigantine across Lake Ontario. Had the 2am watch at the wheel.

OMG! That has got to be one of the greatest thrill rides on Earth. have you ever read the book, "Cape Horn Breed"?

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/b4ea99170b87a1dc.html

I haven't read that book but I have the video, "Square Riggers of the 1930's' which has film footage of a number of square rigged sailing vessels rounding the Horn.

There is a Whitbread video about rounding the horn which I packed away somewhere I should find it and upload it to YouTube.

Brigantine's are pretty cool, I sailed on the Black Pearl for a bit. They just get kind of confusing, lots of lines! Makes a sloop look pretty damn sample.


Thats one ugly sailboat, its big thats all its go going for it.

I think the old J class were the ultimate in racing yachts:

http://www.rick-tomlinson.com/H2OGal...s/053A-H20.jpg


http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ph...3ranger/1s.jpg

http://www.jclass.com/images/pbendeav.jpg

You can have your modern cup boats and Maxi's, IMHO these are some of the finest sailing vessels that were ever made, and ever will be made.

This ones pretty good:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6703499330176739220&q=rounding+cape+horn&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

The die hard racers are nuts. You round the upwind mark it could be blowing 30++ knots, if one boat pops the shoot everyone does. Then its hang on for dear life so you don't broach. But sometimes you do, then the carbon fiber spinniker pole goes BOOM.:eek::D

what ever you said .. sounds like alot of fun...

When I was fishing with Surf we were coming back in through the channel markers and a sailing boat was motoring out.. So Surf punched it and made a big ass wake to screw with them... ^_^... oh well.. gotta have some form of fun

Thanks for the tip, I'll see if I can find that.

Another good sailing book that I read recently was Eric Newby's, "The last grain race". Mre about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Grain_Race

The ship has a web site with lots of pictures and info

http://www.symaltesefalcon.com/

I would be embarrassed to be seen on the Maltese Falcon. It is hideous and extravagent.

Those J boats, on the other hand, are beautiful. If you were a gazillionaire like the guy that owns the Maltese Falcon, wouldn't you really rather have a J boat? Is it even a close call?

EDIT: In fact, if I had that guy's money, I would be driving my Duesenberg Model J to the marina to sail my J boat.

The video includes footage of vessels in Erikson's fleet in the last great grain race.

Just because you have money doesn't mean you have taste.

Agreed. Imagine the thirst of that beast.

Yep... Wind powered for the most part..........:dizzy2:......... Call the green police........:freak:

Nice try dude, check out the slide show where it shows it running under power. I have a feeling it spends a lot of time with the sails retracted. Specially with the potential problems alluded to here:

Yup. The laws of physics don't take kindly to attempted repeal and those masts are having a lot of leverage exerted on them. Add some rigging and you're got a triangle -- the strongest geometric form.

When that thing sinks someone is going to make a fortune on the salvage!

The stand alone masts wouldn't bother me really, Freedom has been doing it for years and AFAIK never had a problem.

Most sailing vessels spend a lot of time under power for various reasons.

FEELING?????????...Lol :scream:.........Check my signature below...:scream:

No doubt... it spends a fair share of it's time under power...That said...It is far more GREEN than you are!!...truth be told..........;) How many miles have traveled being pushed by the wind???.....Greenies..............:dizzy2:

Ugh dude that boat probably has twin engines and consumes several hundred gallons per hour running. Such vessels burn a lot of fuel. Throw in what the hello burns, all the toys ect ect. But it doesn't really matter because there are so few of them, in this case just one.

Even if the ship's fuel consumption is low, the whole thing is still an idiotic waste of money. It looks like an 8th grader's concept of a really cool boat.

Oopsie! Back to the 8th grade for me.

I like the idea of modernizing the concept of sailing vessels to keep-up with materials science and engineering. Rather than worshipping classicism, I like to see technology pushed to it's limits. Let form follow function.

Not that I think classic forms should be destroyed, far from it. I like antiques and respect the knowledge and craftsmanship that created the concept of what we think of as a sailing vessel. For example, I'd love to sail on a clipper or windjammer for they were the pinnacles of their day. I don't doubt that the sailors of the day deplored the radicalism that they embodied saying, "In the old days we used an astrolabe and sand glass and now look at these new-fangled sextants and chronometers. There ain't sailors like in the old days!"

What I would love to see (and have seen concept drawings of) would be modern freighters designed as motor-sailors. It would be a cool sight indeed to see a container ship healing to a 15 kt wind with masts 200 meters tall and sails covering several hectares!

Yeah, give me radical.

I agree with all of that, but the Maltese Falcon is still hideous. Look at the photos on the two links provided in this thread.

Form should almost always follow function. I generally find that if something functions well, then its form will also be pleasing.

Yeah, I looked at the links. The vessel is composed of modern alloys and composites and controlled by computer-commanded motors. They chose to use these materials and methods to take a huge technological step beyond traditional sailing materials and designs. The result is clean, even sparse lines. the important questions to me are whether it is seaworthy, fast, and whether it is comfortable.

It reminds me in a way of the difference between the standard home designs of early in the previous century and the radical innovations of Frank Lloyd Wright. His designs are still pretty radical and not for everybody. (I mean if you bought a Wright house, could you be so presumptuous as to redecorate or repaint or remodel it to reflect your own personality? To me, doing so would be putting a sexy smile on the Mona Lisa.)

Well back in the day they were pretty liberal with sail design. Hence the seven masted schooner, and other things. Or there were various "basterd" rigs.

They didn't have computers, if it looked right it was right.

From a pure techincal perspective its interesting, but its still an ugly boat.

The boat is still a hideous, extravagant waste of money. Every space shown in those photos is ugly in a fashion that has nothing to do with function. IMHO.

As for being stuck in the past, I do like old things, especially things that were state of the art for their time. That's why I drive a W123 and why I like Duesenbergs, steam locomotives, and that sort of thing.

I also like radical new things, if they are well designed and built. Somehow, the Maltese Falcon with its open air bar and space-ship decor falls short of the mark for me. Maybe it's a great sailing ship and maybe its design concepts have a place in commercial shipping, but I think it is a stupid yacht. And I am sure its owner will be devastated to learn that I disapprove of it.;)

I was intrigued by Jacques Cousteau's spinning turbo sails:

http://www.dolphinlog.org/ships/alcyone.htm

I dig it!!..(Maltese Falcon)..:D... a waste of money...ah hell no......that boat charters for $400k a week.........It very well could be a money making machine........

If you want to talk about wasting money..."OUR GOVERMENT" is a good place to start.......:rolleyes:

When was the last time you called your senator or congressmen??

I like it. It is different. I like old as well, I like the wind jammers, I love looking at ships like the USS Constitution and imagining them under full sail guns blazing. I like my 87 16V and I also like a Ferrari Enzo and the F430, I also like a 57 Bel-air. They all have their place.

The Falcon looks like a space faring sea vessel. Something very modern and different. Not all it is my taste but I could definitively live with it.

Waste of money? Sure it is, but so is a Enzo which so many of us here covet. Hideous is in the eye of the beholder.

It is a really cool boat

At least he has sense enough to waste other people's money.

People don't really pay $400K for a week on that boat, do they?

I know of boats that charge $250K that are not nearly the size of the Falcon.

I know of boats that charge much more. Many boats of that size are only avalible to "family and friends" of the owner for charter.

Also thats just for the use of the boat. That does no include food, fuel, dockage, etc etc. Depending on what you do it could add quite a bit onto that number.

Charter info........
http://www.elmarine.com/maltese-falcon-yacht-charter.html

We could get her for a MS GTG.:D

Chill pill time bro. Yes, a feeling, aka, a hunch.

The thing is a monster -- a monument to the marriage of fast money, poor taste, and engineering naivete.

People with such money to burn are freqently not going to be in the mood for the trouble involved with running uder sail, table tilted sideways and all, why it's a bloody bother, mate.

It reminds me a bit of buying carbon credits: "Oh yes, it's fabulously huge and runs carbon free!"

The owner IS absolutely devestated, I'm at pains to report. Why yesterday, he was completely off his golf game. Later I caught him sitting in his new Aston Martin idly fumblng a door luck and muttering.

No but hey, Something tells me that those massive masts are not the best use of materials and weight. I don't have the physics chops at present to tell for sure, but my strong hunch, my feeling if you will, is that the use of 100 lbs of rigging, could save 500 lbs of mast, but that's a guess, issued merely for illustration.