With $100 million, you can make an almighty splash.Comanche, arguably the world's most hotly-anticipated yacht, has finally taken to the seas and for its billionaire owner Jim Clark, it's a chunk of money that could land him a place in the record books.The 100-foot monohull vessel is the brainchild of high-school drop-out Clark, who made his fortune in computer science -- co-founding Netscape and making timely investments in Apple, Facebook and Twitter.Clark, valued at $1.4 billion by Forbes, likens the project to "building a Formula One car from scratch although hopefully not quite as expensive."The sleek black and red vessel is at the very cutting edge of its sport with a top speed expected to approach the 40mph mark."I feel like an expectant father," says Clark, whose Australian wife Kristy is a model and television host."The whole thing when your child is about to be born, you just want it to be healthy. It's not unlike this. You're just praying the boat stays in one piece and that's a realistic fear with such a cutting-edge project like this."The 70-year-old's appointed skipper is Ken Read, of North Sails, the world's leading sailmaker, who has overseen the project since its inception three years ago.Read, a two-time skipper for Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes in the America's Cup, admits to sleepless nights in the build-up to its first foray on water.Clark likes to talk about how the team behind his creation "is pushing the envelope" with Comanche, which lends its origins in part to the yacht Speedboat, which was launched in 2008.Designed by Van Peteghem Lauriot Prevost (VPLP) and Guillame Verdier, Comanche's creation has been fast track, the build itself usually expected to take two years but, in this instance, crammed into just one with up to 40 workers on hand.It is one of the world's largest single infusion hulls and was built at Hodgdon Yachts in Maine. Its facility was effectively transformed into an oven bigger than Commanche itself so that the fibers of the boat could be baked during the construction process.Clark admits that his creation, "lost value the moment it hit the water."So why spend one fourteenth of your personal fortune on what many people would label a vanity project?"People spend money on sports and I just don't do golf, I hate it," says the 70-year-old. "But I love sailing and the technology aspect."Born and brought up in the arid landscape of Texas some way from the nearest coastline, Clark's background does not immediately lend itself to a nautical life. But he joined the Navy and, after three-and-a-half years on the ocean, it became a part of him."It was in the late 1980s that I bought my first sail boat and, from there, you always want to get something bigger," he says. "Then you get to a point where you want to downsize."Which is what he plans to do after Comanche. His other yacht, Athena, is currently moored in Monaco and up for sale at $75m.For now, Comanche, is the sole focus. The name is close to his heart. The last Comanche tribe chief Quanah Parker surrendered about 60 miles from where Clark grew up in an area where "the plains are very flat like the ocean".The primary goal, admits Clark, is "to be a record breaker" and he says, with a throaty laugh, that the boat "will go really, really fast."The target is to win such events as the Transatlantic, Transpac, Fastnet and Middle Sea while breaking records in the process, before selling Commanche in two years.As for the origins of it, there are two slightly differing tales. Clark tells the story of going out on the first Wild Oats, Bob Oatley's boat that has dominated the Sydney to Hobart race, and being blown away by the technology of a keel boat. There and then, the seed of an idea was planted.Read, meanwhile, adds: "Jim and Kirsty are probably the two most competitive people I've ever met. They go to Australia each year for Christmas and obviously Sydney-Hobart is a massive deal out there."They've got friends that are boat owners and they got egged on by their buddies, almost like 'come and play with the big boys'."It is befitting then that Comanche's first race should be Sydney-Hobart, although it is not without its perils.The 1998 edition of the race remains infamous for the freak weather conditions that struck and left six people dead.(CNN)Bakudaily.Az