I wish!
Actually this is about a great book. I just finished “Mine’s Bigger” by David A. Kaplan, the story of Tom Perkins and the Maltese Falcon.
To be honest, I have never been remotely interested in mega-yachts and when she launched a year ago, I paid scant attention. This book changed my mind. It’s a bloody marvel. The length of a football field; the largest sailing vessel ever built; costing $130 million; an extraordinary rig. Its construction employed a small town in Turkey, several college departments and the best boat designers in the world. Perkins had a to get a special license to ship the carbon fiber from Japan as he was the second biggest buyer of after the Pentagon.
The book does a good job of covering the age of sail. It also goes deep into Perkins’ life and the creation of the Venture Capital market. Perkins is an accomplished sailor. His other yachts, Mariette won many regattas and he was (is) an aggressive racer. In one famous race off St Tropez his stand-off with another yacht resulted in the sinking of another boat and the drowning of one its crew.
Most of the book is about the design and construction of the Maltese Falcon and if you’re a boat nerd like me, you’ll love it.
Here is a newsclip about the boat and the book.