There are only about thirty of them across the world. Yet, these luxury yachts are considered as the finest expression of pleasure boating. They are sturdy, fast and elegant.
For a few days, a crazy breeze has been blowing on the small exclusive port of Porto Cervo, in north-east Sardinia. A gigantic, nearly 100-meter white motor yacht, docked by the quay seems to block the entrance of the marina. But gawkers do not seem interested. A real irony for this plastic giant which normally acts the ultimate head turner. This time the attraction is a group of very large sail yachts (between 25 and 35 meters) immediately noticeable thanks to their metallic colored hulls. They get photographed like movie stars. Those are Wally yachts. Connoisseurs rub elbows by two of them: Saudade and Indio, the latest units to be launched. A major event! On the quay a man waves to one of the sailors on board. Seeing the man, the sailor waves back and exclaims: « Mr. Owen-Jones, please come aboard! » This sailor in his forties is Andrea Recordati, heir to an Italian family of pharmaceuticals magnates and owner of Indio. Lindsay Owen-Jones, former L’Oréal Chairman and CEO, is not stepping into the unknown. Magic Carpet 2, his Wally is docked two spaces further: « Congratulations Andrea, you can be proud, she is gorgeous! »
A rare moment, new members of the Wally family do not pop up every day. Twenty-seven children. That’s it. Tiketitan, Open Season, J One, Y3K, or Tango, each yacht is a technological wonder which has required months, sometimes years in development. All are made to order yet, they bear a family likeness deriving from their general lines and exceptional craftsmanship. Nothing sticks out of the entirely flush teck decks. The portholes are fitted in the Burmese wood with millimetric precision. All the lines used to trim the sails are hidden to offer a perfectly clear view. All this of course is powered by electric motors controlled from several control panels located behind the helm wheels which offer a display of dozens of colored knobs and keys. As for metal parts, nothing or almost nothing can bend them, they are made out of titanium.
These sail yachts seem right out of a sci-fi novel. And so does the impressive motor yacht anchored outside the harbor hiding against a rocky Sardinian backdrop. The slender green silhouette is the 35-meter Wally Power (featured in Michael Bay’s 2005 film The Island) used as a residence by the Italian genius who fathered these wonders of the seas: Luca Bassani.
« I’ve been sailing with my family since childhood, explains the man with a devastating smile across his salt and pepper beard. When we would sail out on large yachts, it took about twenty crewmen and an hour and a half to hoist the sails… It was far too complex! » Half-child half-Captain Nemo, he starts imagining large, light filled yachts that would be easy to use by a limited number of persons and, first of all, would be very fast. Thanks to the family fortune —a fortune acquired over several generations in the manufacturing of small electrical parts— he starts designing his first sail powered prototype which he names Wallygator. « I wanted to find a name that would please my son, » he laughs. When the first prototype left the yards in 1991, it’s a revolution. The hull is dark green, entirely made of carbon, the sails can be trimmed and adjusted thanks to electric motors and hidden hydraulic jacks. The yacht comes as a surprise and also scares some in a world deeply anchored in its traditions, white hulls, many winches and lines running all over which nobody understand what they were for except sailors themselves. « A lot of people thought my yacht was very fragile. They thought the carbon mast would break that the hydraulic jacks would fail. What they did not realize at the time was that carbon is not only sturdier than any metal but also considerably lighter. Why do without it then? »
Using the most advanced materials and technologies, he succeeds in reducing the number of crew members needed to operate the boat (on a cruise, A Wally can be operated by three persons). On top of all that he unknowingly builds fearsome racers. « The size, and the enormous power of some parts of the yachts have pushed us to hide lines and pulleys which could possibly becomes traps for children on board, explains Bassani. It happened a little by chance but it is first out of our concern for safety that we « cleaned » the yacht by hiding everything under the deck. It was not only based on design. » With such sea giants, regatta promoters have created a new class just for them.
With his Wallygator, Luca Bassani has invented the more-than-perfect concept. His engineers are constantly looking for the best suited materials and the most up-to-date technologies available to improve performance, esthetics or capacity. « It’s simple, I want the best, explains Bassani. Why shouldn’t the fastest boat also be the most beautiful and the most comfortable? »
This is why the yacht soon becomes the favorite toy of wealthy industrialists. From Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan and even Kazakstan, discrete fortunes come and knock on Luca’s door for him to build their dream yacht. « I really try to take them as far as possible from what they already know. And I can tell you that after twenty years, Wallygator is still one of the most modern yachts you can find. »
Success is such that Wally clients are no longer content with sail yachts. They dream to see the Italian shipyards bring the revolution they brought to sailing to motor boating. Bassani then returns to the drawing board to reinvent everything. The result is just as incredible as with the sail yachts. Shapes dictated by optimum hydrodynamics give the first Wally Power sold in 2001 the looks of a stealth ship. Again, carbon is everywhere. The cabin gets tinted windows. But what Bassani is most proud of are the engines: two authentic jet turbines. « For me, who prefers sailing, I saw only one advantage in taking the helm of a motor boat: speed. » As a result, at a speed of over 100 km/h on smooth waters, it takes only forty-five minutes to rally Saint Tropez from Monaco, and a little over three hours to reach Sardinia! « It is as if you were driving a car at 300 km/h without having to fear speed radars, » he explains with mischevious eyes.
He never stops dreaming. One of the latest ideas to pop from his limitless imagination is the « small » 14-meter Wally Power. « Sail yachts like mine are not suited for marinas most of which where built in the 1970′s, a time when large yachts rarely exceeded 20 meters, explains Andrea Recordati, owner of Indio, the latest sail Wally. One had to find a way of filling the tanks while remaining outside harbors. Luca has developed a boat equipped with a separate 2000-liter tank and a pump. More than a simple tender allowing to disembark and go ashore, one fills the tank in the harbor and the boat then becomes a mobile gas station! A small wonder I cannot do without from the Mediterranean to the Carribeans. » A tender with a one million euro price tag… It’s not that much when a Wally of about 30 meters will come with a tag a little under 10 million euros! But is it reasonable to put a price tag on the wildest dreams?
However, there is still an unknown factor in Luca Bassini’s equation. There are no marinas capable of hosting his oversize children. But he has an idea about the problem. « Imagine a rock and soil artificial island at the entrance of the Gulf of Saint Tropez. It would protect the gulf from the swell and would allow very large sail and motor boats to have their own quiet anchorage. A modern harbor could look like something like that. Let’s try and blend into nature instead of building pontoons and concrete breakwaters… » A futuristic concept, probably a little crazy but think about Hergé who passed for a lunatic when he imagined Tintin landing on the Moon fifteen years before Neil Armstrong…
By Julien Pfyffer / Océan 71
