This was a project that took some time to get finished, with some unexpected things happening and then arranging the boat to be sold from a vendor (it is still a Tako, so Kanker owns the vendor) … and in the very end Kanker also updated the Tako to version 3.3 – so Pearl was to be a version 3.3 Flying Tako too.
So … what is it then? And why is it called “Pearl”?
The name came last, just before creating the vendor graphics, so I will explain it first. I had the idea that since the boat essentially is a Flying Tako, with only cosmetic changes… And tako is octopus in japanese (you can see that on the original Tako sail logo too), I did want this boat to be in some way tied to an octopus of some kind, or at least some kind of sealife if not octopus.
So I thought and thought some more, it is always the most difficult part to come up with a name it seems. And there weren’t that many octopi with very appealing names, it appeared to me. So I spent some more time thinking, and tried to search the web for various squid. And the more I searched the less appealing the whole idea seemed. And then finally when I was about to give up, from somewhere came the idea..
There is a very cute purple octopus called Pearl in Disney film “Finding Nemo” and from that moment on when I thought of that, “Pearl” seemed very appropriate name for a boat that is customized from a Flying Tako. 
So .. about the boat itself then. It was inspired by vintage square metre class boats, with traditional materials .. and I chose pine, oregon pine and teak for this boat. This boat evolved somewhat from a custom project I did last year, someone might remember seeing the mahogany boat called “Christelle” in front of the Sail Loft in Caddo.
However this pine boat, as I used to call it for quite long time, soon evolved to have a life of it’s own – with tanbark sails and painted dark red under the waterline with white accent stripes – very much honoring the traditional aesthetics of similar vintage boats in RL. Also some finer details got improved on “Pearl” such as the vintage lines going up the mast and along the deck of the boat.
In essence it is a Flying Tako, the prim shapes and sizes are left intact. But every single texture on the boat has been changed from the originals. So it can be said to be a fully custom textured Tako … all textures have also been crafted to specifically fit this particular boat.
So along the project, the boat was displayed for a time at my shop, but not yet for sale … and I got several people asking when it would be available. So I am glad to announce now, that it finally got finished a few weeks ago, with Tako version 3.3 scripts in it, put into a vendor, and is for sale now.
You can see and buy the boat in-world at SZ Designs Sail Loft, Caddo.
Suzanne,
Your web site looks grand!
I am not used to making comments. But could not stop myself!
I am excited that you have a blog.
I feel this will enable many people to grasp what an extraordinary, innovative and creative mind is behind SZ Designs.
Wish you the best of luck in your new journey…
Bing Sewell
Dear Suzanne
I have heard of second life, but know little about it. Now I happen to be the owner of a very old and established yacht design business, A.Mylne & Co established 1896. We have a collection of around 400 designs dating from the turn of last century, and would be interested in your thoughts.
Thank you for your comments Bing and David.
Regarding Second Life for Real Life companies, all I know is that Second Life can be much more demanding place for a real life business, than many of the excited articles in the media this year might let us know.
There are lots of possibilities, but to me it seems that many real world companies come to Second Life with unrealistic hopes and expectations. And many of the real world companies seem to be bit confused what the virtual world residents want.
At least for the time being the biggest confusion seems to be that many people in the virtual world are only interested in virtual goods – and have very little interest towards real world advertising or real world goods presented in the virtual world.
It seems that this concept is very hard to understand for some people, and I have heard more than one time asked questions like “why would anyone want to spend real money for virtual goods”. And if the real world company doesn’t understand that concept, they will very likely fail in the virtual world.
My best advice would be to actually spend time in Second Life, and finding out what it really is all about. At least for a month. Explore and learn about things, look around, find out what people want and what they do in the virtual world.
That would be much better approach than the one what seems to be too common with real world companies: read an excited business article about Second Life, hire someone to create a virtual world presence and then sit back to expect positive results from that.