Maltese Falcon ... hit or miss?

[Stephen Ditmore]

What do people think of Maltese Falcon?
http://www.symaltesefalcon.com/image...0THE%20DAY.htm
(looks like a toy, doesn't it...?)

[JesperW]

Please add another alternative: Interesting but severly ugly...

[Stephen Ditmore]

If you go to http://www.gdnp.nl/, click "designs", then "square rigged ships", you'll see classic style vessels by the same naval architect. Would you imagine combining the freestanding DynaRig (or whatever it's called) with an older style hull? Would it have a bowsprit?

[J.D.Hogg]

The hull is beautiful but, everything above it is, well, not. Very cool ship but really how do you excuse spending so much effort and money on something that is at best, odd looking.

[usa2]

its fugly, but an interesting concept....

[Wellydeckhand]

Well beauty is in the eyes of BEHOLDER............ if it is ugly then it would be my dept. I accept her anytime.............. I would say I like it.

[Stephen Ditmore]

Let me be devil's advocate and say I think an upper deck bridge is practical on a yacht this large, from a visibility standpoint. Some sailing yachts over 100 feet (30 meters) with deck level or aft cockpit helms have inadequate visibility from the helm, in my opinion.

Do the people who say Maltese Falcon is ugly think that of all the Perini Navis, or only this one (the largest)?
http://www.perininavi.it/index.cfm?Lang=UK

[Guillermo]

May I say I like her very much...?

[Stephen Ditmore]

Si senior. As motorsailor-man, is there anything about MF that could be utilized in a smaller vessel's design? What would you think of a two masted dynarig ketch that otherwise looks like Scheherazade?
http://boatdesign.net/gallery/showph...o/1197/cat/510

[Tim B]

Well, it proves a number of interesting points, but as a sailing vessel I'm not fond of it. I did go to a lecture courtesy of RINA and IMAREST SJB and it was most interesting. There is also a freely available HISWA paper on the project. However I'm not sure what it actually proves, except that you can build an un-stayed square-rigger. In terms of meeting it's sail handling criterior, it is fantastic, but I think an electric/hydraulic boom or mast furler with an unstayed sloop rig would have done just as well.

Tim B.

[jehardiman]

Interesting, but misses the mark for the correct "look".

Why?

1) The mast and spars look too "heavy", not the thin poles we expect.

2) Deck house does not extend to the transom (i.e the quarterdeck look). Again not what we expect.

3) Get rid of that stupid looking radar/sat dish tree up forward even though I know it was put there to clear the mast clutter.

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Stephen Ditmore

Si senior. As motorsailor-man, is there anything about MF that could be utilized in a smaller vessel's design? What would you think of a two masted dynarig ketch that otherwise looks like Scheherazade?
http://boatdesign.net/gallery/showph...o/1197/cat/510

We'll, as you know there are some designers who have used sqare rigs for small motorsailers, llike Ray Benford, seemingly with good results. It doesn't seem such a bizarre idea for heavy boats with big hull volumes (as many motorsailers are), because being these boats intrinsecally winward inefficient, an square rig may make sense. Specially with this new DinaRig concept taking away all the square rig fuss and adding winward ability over a conventional one. A drawback would be price, probably.

I even thought of adding to good old Marie's main (and low!) mast a pole to hoist an square sail and so improving downwind ability, now very poor. As I cannot go for a higher mast with more efficient sails, because of a bridge just at the entrance of the marina, I'll do it some day....

[J.D.Hogg]

After a second look the only thing about it's look that I'm sure is off, is the inward taper on the bottom half of the sails. If they came down wider than the middle or at least straight down, then I think it would look less top heavy.

I really like the idea just not the styling, and yes, i like other Perini Navi.

[tamkvaitis]

This boat is slightly different aproach to siling boats. It is a combination of modern and oldschool. I like it and I don't realy care is it effective or not. It is creative. Pretty much all new sailboats look the same. Triangular sails, deck with or without a pilot house. Only few boats are built using different aproach, and this is one of these few.

[Vega]

Originally Posted by JesperW

Interesting but ... ugly...

Well I have to agree. Interesting, but not beautiful.
A sailboat should be beautiful

It is not about the hull, nor about the sails, but about the superstructure and the several decks. Those would look alright in a power yacht, but in a sailboat….they look out of place. I don’t like it. I know that there are some very big yachts that have several upper decks…but I don’t like those either.
I find it very interesting though, and those sails could also work in a boat with an upper deck more suitable for a sail boat (semiologically speaking) and in that case I would probably find it beautiful.
But about tastes….everybody has his own