Wally
Vision & passion or the secret of Wallymania.
The brilliant Wally success story, how the visionary Italian from Milano transformered the look of yachting forever and why people and especially women are stopping to marvel – in this article we try to find out the secret of Mr. Wally.
Luca Bassani Antivari, founder and president of Wally Yachts, is a true revolutionary.No other designer has done more to turn the look of sailing and motor yachts on its head in the 21st century than the cheeky Italian. The products of this visionary and innovative company mock the standards and conventions used so far in the construction of floating oases. WALLY, a league of its own.
Today, the name causes excitement among professionals in the sail and motorboat industries. Luca Bassani, himself an experienced and passionate sailor and motorboat racer, considered the then prevailing rules, materials and designs as obsolete. He became convinced that it would be possible to introduce a new kind of thinking in yacht design. On the one hand, he wanted to greatly improve comfort, on the other he wanted to make the boats faster and safer. He also believed it possible to build yachts suitable for top races as well as for “daily use.”
The first boat built by Luca Bassani – Wallygator - was intended for himself and his family, because he couldn’t find a boat on the market that he wanted to buy. The very first boat with carbon bodywork, a carbon mast and a revolutionary layout. With sails like no others ever produced before and new systems for trimming them. Combining the comfort and luxury of a large cruising yacht with the performance of a maxi-yacht racer, and making sailing easier and safer. In fact, being a keen and experienced sailor himself, Luca Bassani did not want to give up the pleasure and enjoyment of speed, but at the same time he wanted a family-friendly and very comfortable yacht he could sail with little crew and have his children onboard without worrying about safety. So he started developing ideas and concepts new to cruising yachts that he felt would meet his requirements, like the use of advanced composites and easy-handling features.
In addition, Bassani meant to remove ropes and other equipment such as winches and cranks from the deck – dangerous for passengers and children alike – or at least hide them from view. This, of course, would also give the overall design a clean look.
After Bassani tested his own yacht with his family, the idea ripened to launch WALLY YACHTS as it is known today – to the utmost satisfaction of yachtsmen everywhere. And what were the reactions to such a dramatic new direction?
First people were scared of them. Scared of the very new design, the new technology. They weren’t yet ready to buy something so provocatively new. But then he eventually recived his first commission.
So he founded his own company „Wally” in 1993.
Because the first Wallygator was so enthusiastically welcomed that he thought there must be other owners like him, looking for a new way of cruising. Furthermore, he thought that most of the problems he faced building his yacht could be overcome by bringing industrialisation to the custom building process. So he founded his own company „Wally” in 1993.
Wally Yachts main characteristics is that it serves as a general contracting company in the creation of custom sail yachts taking care of all the aspects of the project until the yacht is delivered to the client. One year later the second Wallygator received the Showboats International award ‘Most Innovative Sailing Yacht’ of the year.
Since then, Wally has become a leader in the development of cutting edge style, advanced composite yachts. In 2001 Wally entered the motor yacht market with three different projects, sharing the same concept of combining technology and design to obtain a new type of boat, as it did with the sail.
What makes a Wally yacht so very special?
One would be inclined to say: “Everything!” Like before, the Wally concept is based on the principle “fast, safe, simple, comfortable, beautiful.” On a Wally, for example, the sails are operated hydraulically – at the push of a button. This means that even a yacht 24 m long can be sailed and manoeuvered by a single person. All operating elements are below deck, in the mast or in the boom. The result?
There is almost no clutter. Another plus derived from such a technical design is the fact that the entire teak deck has a very elegant and clean look. These technical and design features not only make each Wally the ideal yacht for impassioned, expert sailors but also motorboat fans who until now did not dare operate sailboats over longer distances out of respect for such “complicated” equipment. Today, WALLY YACHTS is something like a general contractor responsible for all aspects of boat design.
Wind, motors and snow. . .
After entereing the market for sailing boats, Wally went on to make waves in the far more established motorboat market with launch of the (Eurojel 21) million Wally Power followed by three different projects, sharing the same concept of combining technology and design to obtain a new type of boat, as it did with the sail.
The 118 WallyPower, for example, a 36 m long, futuristic dream boat, leaves nothing to be desired in terms of comfort or power. It is a high performance super yacht that integrates technology with aesthetics for a sleek and startling result. 118 WallyPower won the Millennium Yacht Design Award (MYDA) dedicated to a design that remarkably contributed to the development of the concept of the yacht layout. This is the only boat selected by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for the major architecture and design exhibition “Glamour: Fabricating affluence”. We could all admire this fantastic boat in the movie The Island, with Scarlet ohansson and Ewan Mc Gregor, produced by DreamWorks and directed by Michael Bay.
But it still wasn’t enough for Mr. Bassani - who doesn’t only take charge of the whole business, but is the brains behind every single piece of marine art that comes out of Wally’s headquarters in Monaco – in 1993 he started racing the Wallys and in 2000 he founded the Wally Class, that is one of the four divisions of IMA - International Maxi Association - and is admitted in the most important international regattas representing the largest fleet of yachts over 24 meters. The Wallys have reached the important status of being the new Maxis, recognized by the International Sailing Federation.
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