Super-yachts have been inextricably linked with the celebrated and wealthy: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis played host to Jackie Kennedy (later Mrs. Onassis), Maria Callas, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly-before and after her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco-on the 325-foot Christina (newly restored). Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert interviewed film moguls on yachts moored near the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France. And generations of high-end achievers, from dot-com billionaires to oil-rich Middle Eastern sheikhs, have recreated on enormous boats at glamorous ports.
And who can blame a super-achiever such as Perkins wanting his moment in the sun: On the Maltese Falcon, he explained to Stahl that the flags and pennants on his sailing yacht spell out, "Rarely does one have the privilege of witnessing vulgar ostentation displayed upon such a scale."
Super-yachts are indeed the stuff that dreams are made of.