SY Maltese Falcon 88m

The Maltese Falcon is a clipper sailing luxury yacht owned by American centimillionaire Tom Perkins. It is the largest privately-owned sailing yacht in the world at 88 metres (289.1 feet). Ken Freivokh Design were the appointed designers for Maltese Falcon, the world's largest privately owned sailing yacht.

The luxury yacht is currently registered in George Town, USA; though it will shortly be registered in Valletta, Malta as Grand Harbour will be its homeport for the next 25 years. It completed its trial sail in the Marmara to the Bosphorus strait on 12 June 2006 and made its maiden voyage from Turkey to Italy via Malta in July 2006. S/Y ‘Maltese Falcon’ was be available for select yacht charters beginning in the summer of 2006 and charters out for between EUR€ 325000.00-335000.00 per week[1] plus expenses.


She sports fifteen square sails (five per mast) which only take 6 minutes to open. The three carbonfibre masts, manufactured and assembled at the Yildiz Gemi yard in Tuzla, 50 miles south of Istanbul, Turkey, under the supervision of the English company Insensys are free-standing and rotating, an absolute world-first for an application of this size and complexity. Without sails, these masts can be used on their own to leave port. The yacht's sophisticated computer detects parameters such as wind speed automatically and controls all sailing controls, making it possible for a single person to pilot the yacht