£60m floats Tom Perkins’ 289ft boat

Tom Perkins, 75, is one of the technology pioneers credited with founding Silicon Valley and his venture capital firm helped finance the set-up of Google. He is a non-executive director of News Corporation, ultimate owner of The Sunday Times.

The 289ft boat — an elegant “hybrid” that can run on giant sails or engines — is believed to have fetched about £60m after being on the market for more than a year. The yacht, named after the Dashiell Hammett crime novel and its Humphrey Bogart film version, has three carbon-fibre masts carrying 15 sails. Its appearance is based on a traditional, square-rigged sailing ship.

Despite the recession, demand for superyachts remains. According to The Yacht Report magazine, there are now nearly 3,500 superyachts around the world and by the end of the year there will be 4,162.