It is with great sadness that we share the news of the recent passing of experienced yachtsman and legendary Silicone Valley icon Mr. Tom Perkins. Perkins died on on Tuesday night at his home in Marin County, California aged 84.
Perkins was regarded as an icon in the development of the Silicon Valley venture capital industry and indirectly played a key role in the establishment of organisations such as Netscape, Amazon and Google. He became the first Managing Director of Hewlett Packard’s computer divisions in the 1960s and together with Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard nurtured HP into the global IT superpower it has become today.
Perkins’ love for the ocean led him to become a serial yacht owner, with his most high-profile yacht undoubtedly having been the innovative 88 metre Maltese Falcon. Perkin’s forward-thinking outlook pushed the boundaries in the industry and together with Dutch naval architecture firm Dykstra employed the first Dyna Rig design on a superyacht. Other yachts under his ownership included the 1930-built Atlantide, a 1915 classic sailing yacht Mariette, two other Perini Navi sailing yachts namely Paz (then Andromeda la Dea) and Andromeda la Dea as well as the explorer yacht Dr. No.