Sailing the Maltese Falcon Around Ibiza

Such an incredible integration of technology and design in this carbon fiber masterpiece, the largest and fastest single-hull megayacht in the world. When it sails, the enormous boat tilts like a racing boat, dipping the lower railing into the sea. It is quite dramatic, and everything onboard has to be secured from falling over.

WIRED called it the “the most daring advance in sailing technology in 150 years. The overall look is sleek, metallic, and ultramodern, almost foreboding. When Darth Vader builds his own intergalactic yacht, it will look like this.

The genius — and risk — of the rigging is its use of freestanding masts that rotate to adjust sail trim and tack the boat. There are practically no external ropes or wires, no traditional rigging of any sort to brace the spars or control the nearly 26,000 square feet of sail. The 15 sails deploy at the push of a button, rolling out from inside each hollow mast along recessed tracks on stationary horizontal yardarms. When Dijkstra’s drawings first came in, the CEO of Perini Navi, the Italian company that built the ship, muttered, “Whatever that is, it’s not going to sail.” Each mast is secured to the hull by two huge steel bearings. The three assemblies — mast, bearings, motors, and fittings — each weigh well over 30 tons. To measure the stress on the masts, a fiber-optic network is embedded in the layers of carbon-fiber laminate. These 0.01-inch-diameter cables contain sensors that relay real-time data about the structural health of the masts to a graphic display on the bridge. Seventy-five sealed motors, 60 for unfurling and 15 for furling, are used to manage the sails.”

You can see all that on the video I took. And here are all of my photos here on flickr.