![]() She looks like a missile designed to go to the moon.” “The soul of that design is really, really strong. “It’s probably the best known boat in the world,” Bassani says. His love of competition meant the birth of the Wally Class in 1999 was inevitable. He took gold in the Mumm 30 class at the 1998 world championships and silver in the European championships that same year. He went on to win two European championships in the Six Metre class, and placed third in the worlds in 1983. He was soon racing himself and, in 1979, introduced the J/24 class to Italy. There I learnt everything about the sea and sailing.” He’d also spend time with the pro sailors on their boats, to complete his immersion. “We would go fishing very early in the morning and then go diving, picking up urchins or starfish to sell in the town square to the few tourists who were coming then, all so we could buy our glass of Coca-Cola. When he wasn’t sailing on his father’s boat out of the town’s pretty port, he was with his friends. He grew up in Milan but holidayed in Portofino every year, for the whole three months of summer. It was a neat end-of-chapter in Bassani’s life: a return to the sea. “So I thought I should try to set up a little business to promote this kind of new generation of boat.” And with that, in 1994, Wally Yachts was born, the company capitalising on the name of Bassani’s first boat – “and because our boats would also be a bit ‘wally’!” “People started saying, ‘but that’s a cruising boat, with teak and air-conditioning and everything, and she’s as fast as we are’.” Despite the attention, his boat remained apart Bassani could not understand why no one was copying him. He spent two years cruising and racing Wallygator, occasionally beating genuine raceboats to line honours. Luca Bassani has always felt at home on sailing yachts He was young, he was new in the market and he didn’t have anything to lose.” The only designer that would listen to me was Luca Brenta. I also wanted a forward master cabin, a self-tacking jib and no backstays. “We are talking about 1989 and first of all I wanted a carbon fibre mast, and at that time the only boat with a carbon fibre mast was the New Zealand America’s Cup boat. The industry was 20 years behind and nobody wanted to progress,” he says. “They were scared to put their reputation at risk in delivering a boat that could be too innovative. No boat then on the market matched his requirements and nor would any boat designers take his commission. “Finally, after a long period of being very, very busy, for a while I was free, very rich and I said, ‘OK, now I want the boat of my dreams’.”įinding it was easier said than done. Well below 40 and with a very deep wallet, he did what most people would do – he went looking for a superyacht. In 1989 he got rich after the sale of the family firm, BTicino, a world leader in electrical components. ![]() The first boat he ever built was actually for himself. When you look and see that everybody is doing the same as us, you say ‘why didn’t you just come to Wally?’”īassani photographed by Helmut Newton on Wallygator ![]() It’s a good number, for big sailing yachts like this, but I think the market could have trusted us a bit more. “I think we’ve deserved to sell more than 46, 47 boats. I don’t think it’s too much to say that Genie has influenced the last 20 years.” But there’s an obvious flip-side to any new thinking. “That kind of layout, that kind of style and deck, it’s clear. “You look around the market today and I would say that 95 per cent of yachts from 40 to 140 feet have copied Genie of the Lamp,” Bassani says, referring to the 24.24 metre sloop he launched in 1995. His sailing output generates slightly less attention but has had an even greater impact, not just setting trends but a whole new direction for superyacht design. Car designers will point to Bassani’s iconic WallyPower 118 as an inspiration, and if the sharp, faceted model cruises into port anywhere, the cameraphones come out. His company, the world-famous Wally Yachts, is one of the few boat brands to go mainstream, like Riva or maybe even Chris-Craft. If mimicry is flattery then Luca Bassani should spend his entire life blushing. Sailers, powerboats, tenders, displacement superyachts – his Wallys are distinctive, unforgettable vessels that have shaped the industry says Stewart Campbell. From the moment he launched Wally Yachts in 1994, Luca Bassani has never looked back.
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