When venture capitalist Tom Perkins launched his $150-million-plus, football-field-long, three-masted megayacht Maltese Falcon—the largest sailboat in the world—he wanted to commemorate it with something special. So he called Robert Eddy, who specializes in smaller boats.

Much smaller boats.

Eddy works in inches rather than feet, making scale models of yachts that may look like toys to some but are as akin to playthings as gem-encrusted Fabergé eggs are to Easter variety. Each one takes him a year or longer to craft and costs between $100,000 and $200,000—though one client recently paid $225,000. The materials, which can include gold, silver, diamonds, and exotic woods, can add between 10 and 15 percent to the price tag. Travel and documentation—gathering information from the designer, archives, or naval ­architect—also involve additional costs.

“His attention to the smallest detail is his primary characteristic, plus the quality of his workmanship,” says Perkins. “The human eye is excellent at spotting small errors, which betray most models. But a photograph of an Eddy model cannot be identified as being that of a model. It looks like a photo of the real yacht.” Perkins knows: The miniature Falcon is his fifth Eddy.

Since the late 1980s, when he began building models professionally, Eddy has sold more than 30 scale models, plus more half models—half of a boat mounted on a backboard—than he can count. (Yes, they’re half as expensive.)

“Some people like to catalog their history of yachting,” Eddy says, by way of explaining why his clients are willing to pay the price of a 40-foot cruiser for something that’s just a few inches long. Unlike the real thing, the miniature version can be enjoyed at home or in the office. Then there’s the pleasure that comes from possessing an object with a value and craftsmanship that only the cognoscenti are likely to recognize—people like Lands’ End founder Gary Comer, Campbell Soup heir Tristram Colket, and Netscape founder Jim Clark, all of whom are Eddy clients.
 
Eddy built his largest model, the 40-inch-long Turmoil, for Comer, while his model of a Bugatti dinghy for Perkins measures just 2.25 inches long. For his latest Perkins project, Eddy shrunk the 289-foot Falcon down to 18 inches, yet it remains excruciatingly accurate in its detail, even a little richer. As with all his models, Eddy uses gold and silver for the fittings, and diamonds are set in the winch tops. The hull below the waterline is carved out of basswood, a wood indigenous to Maine. Eddy describes it as a sort of half softwood, half hardwood, blond and with a straight grain that carves well and is especially nice for complex curves. For the portion above the waterline he used mahogany, a hardwood that holds minute details. Since it’s impossible to match paint shades exactly, he used two-part marine catalyst paint left over from the yacht’s construction.

Before he begins working on a model, Eddy spends a few days taking photographs and measurements of the real deal. “Of course, he also uses the builder’s drawings,” Perkins says, “but sometimes he finds ­errors—the yard didn’t quite build to the drawing. Thus, the Eddy model is truly the ­microclone of the real thing.” For the Falcon, Eddy flew to Turkey when the boat was previewed, then later traveled to Italy to collect additional ­information.

Unlike plastic models of yore, Eddy’s boats don’t include anything hidden from view, such as galleys or crew bunks. “I don’t get carried away with the detail inside, because clients are spending quite a lot of money on external detail,” he says. “On occasion I do go into interior detail. If the ­pilothouse of the boat has a space, I like to see through the windows. It’s a nice thing to do because it gives the model a little bit of dimension.”

When a model is finished, Eddy sometimes travels to wherever its owner has had it shipped and installs it in a custom-built glass case that protects it from dust, UV rays, and prying fingers. “If we didn’t have a case, everyone would want to touch it and pop a shroud,” he explains.

Eddy grew up in Camden, Maine, a picturesque town of 5,250 wedged between the mountains and the coastline, where sailing vessels regularly ply the waters. “I’ve been building models since I was a young kid,” he says in his soft voice. “I always had a desire to do these models for a living.”

To acquire the necessary skills, he worked for a jeweler and a naval architect and built architectural models in Boston. Today he lives in a house two miles from his parents’ home and works with a couple of assistants in a two-story shop nearby. Sometimes his two daughters help out.

And while he may be doing ­everything on a much smaller scale, he does share certain key characteristics with his clients.

“The guys I work for are very proud of their yachts and very proud of their involvement in the building of the boat,” he says. “Many of them like the process of building the boat more than being on the boat.”