Tom Perkins, the venture capitalist behind such companies as Google, Genentech, Amazon, and AOL, doesn't do things halfway. When he collected vintage cars, for instance, he had the world's largest collection of Bugatti automobiles. And when he decided to pursue a lifelong dream and build a sailing yacht, he went the whole nine yards: He decided it would be the world's largest yacht–big enough to fit Noah's Ark on its deck. He wanted it to sail at a record 26 knots, under unprecedented physical forces. And, he thought, having built this marine wonder, why not use it to try to smash the 155–year–old world sailing record from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn?

Thus the Maltese Falcon–the largest private sailing vessel ever constructed–was born.

Perkins is a sailor as well as a dreamer, and he loves the romantic idea of sailing–and the magnificent ships of yore with names like Cutty Sark and Sea Witch that conjured up images of speed and danger. So Perkins set out to build "the perfect yacht"–as long as a football field, 42 feet wide, and with three masts so tall they will just fit under the great suspension bridges of the world. The Maltese Falcon, as he's dubbed his ship (since its home berth will be Malta), will use technology no clipper skipper ever imagined–a rig with no sheets, no stays, no halyards–just free–standing, rotating carbon fiber masts with 18 sails surging freely in the wind. At $87 million, it will be a technological marvel–as complex as the man himself. The famed Perini Navi yard in Turkey put the Falcon in the water in 2006, ready for sea trials.

There is some competition to the title of the grandest yacht of all–the Athena (being built by Netscape founder Jim Clark) and the Mirabella V (being built by Avis Car Rental magnate Joe Vittoria). Athena will be the largest sloop, and Mirabella V the largest schooner. But the Maltese Falcon will be a marvel of mechanics, engineering, and techonology, married with the romance of the age of sail, dressed out in the finest accommodations money can buy and the human mind can imagine. More than just the story of the boat, The Falcon is a broader profile of the combination of ambition, recklessness, bravado, and achievements of a 21st century entrepreneur and his time.