Justin Ratcliffe
04/01/2007
Wallys stir up a gamut of emotions in sailboat owners. There are
the traditionalists who look askance at the radical styling and flamboyant paint
jobs, and there are the enthusiasts who regard Luca Bassani as a kind of demigod
put on this earth to shake up the "white boat" school of yacht design. As
always, the truth lies somewhere in between, but I defy anyone not to be blown
away by the stunning lines of the new 143-foot (43-meter) Wally, Esense.
True to her name, the yacht is both essential and sensual.
Top: The salon windows. Bottom: Expansive flush decks. Photography by Gilles Martin-Raget. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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My first sight of her was one sparkling autumn morning last
November when she was moored in the commercial port in Ancona, Italy, while
undergoing final sea trails prior to delivery. Even our group of seasoned
journalists was awestruck by what is clearly a new breed of megasailer. Easily
the biggest Wally to date, the all-carbon-fiber Esense is clearly an
evolution of the company’s philosophy, but it is the innovative deck design that
so distinctly sets the boat apart and makes her look more like a maxi-racer than
a bluewater cruiser.
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The fused and vacuum-sealed teak decking creates what is effectively a single massive cockpit protected by raised bulwarks some three feet high and punctuated by a single glass-covered hatchway and central seating area with dining table. A trademark feature of previous Wally yachts, the raised bulwarks have been taken one step further and are an integral part of the hull’s wishbone structure, providing longitudinal rigidity to the huge expanse of flush deck in the absence of ring frames. In addition to providing ample stowage space, they also house the mooring cleats, fuel tank filling points, Condaria air-conditioning units and much of the running rigging, which leaves the deck completely clear of ropes apart from the halyards and topping lift. As wide as they are high, these bulwarks add a whole new meaning to sitting on the rail, although the black carbon fiber is likely to get more than a little hot to the touch in the sun.
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Close to 2,000 square feet of deck area can obviously accommodate many more than the quota of eight sleeping guests, and herein lies the yacht’s raison d’être. Leaving aside the slick performance of Bill Tripp’s naval architecture (which we later experienced firsthand), and despite her bare-boat resemblance to Wild Oats or Alfa Romeo, Esense is the young Italian owners’ first sailing yacht, and for the time being they have no intention of racing her.
"The family was attracted more by the styling and design of Wally yachts than their performance," admits marine surveyor and engineer Graham Pickering, who acted as the owners’ representative. "They wanted plenty of party space and comfort combined with transatlantic capability, wrapped up in an innovative Wally design package."
Wally yachts are not generally perceived as rugged offshore cruisers, but Esense represents a determined rebuttal of the standard criticism of Wally yachts as "Mediterranean daysailers." She is the company’s first concerted attempt to build a true world cruiser, not just in terms of sheer size, but also with regard to beefing up onboard systems. Pickering had a big hand in specifying equipment from the piping up.
"The biggest step for Wally was to eliminate the whole twenty-four-volt silent sailing philosophy," he explains. "We had to accept from Day One that there would always be a generator running, so we have gone with full gensets and saved on battery weight in the process."
In addition to the two 45-kW Westerbeke generators (close to 440 pounds lighter than their Northern Lights equivalents) that can manage all of the boat’s power demands without the need for paralleling, the technical specs include a robust 550-hp Caterpillar engine, a 1,585-gallon freshwater tank with two HEM osmosis watermakers that can produce nearly 5,000 liters of water per day and a generous 3,079-gallon fuel tank for a transatlantic range of 3,000 miles at a speed of 13 knots. To further save on weight and compactness, the Servogear variable-pitch drive system does away with the standard gearbox with forward and reverse gears, relying on just the hydraulic pump controller instead. The yacht also features a unique servo-assisted steering system developed in conjunction with Cariboni (see Tech Talk).
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Wally has perfected a fast and simple lifting keel system aboard Esense to vary the draft from six to four meters with lifting gear for the combined 50 tons of lead bulb and steel fin supplied by APM of Italy. The problem with lifting keels is fixing them in place securely, so that vertical pressure from the main ram and a wedge profile at the top of the fin ensure the system is locked and watertight. Above deck, the keel casing ingeniously doubles as the plinth supporting the dining table. Wally has conducted various experiments at Milan Polytechnic to protect hull integrity in the event of the keel grounding. On Esense, the main ram is programmed to tolerate a specific tolerance and will retract on impact. But on future boats Wally is planning to introduce "crumple zones" in the front section of the bulb, which studies have shown reduce the impact loading on the hull by as much as 40 percent. The company already has had firsthand experience with a similar setup—albeit unwittingly—aboard Open Season, which touched bottom last summer in Porto Cervo at nine knots with no damage.
When lowered, the 18-foot draft and 21-foot-long bulb counterbalance the 900 square meters of 3DL sails by North Sails to give Esense superb acceleration. In light air, the yacht builds her own apparent wind very quickly. When we took her out for a spin in Ancona she was making a steady 10 knots and touching 12 in eight knots of true wind. Bassani was clearly delighted with this performance and was even willing to bet she is faster upwind than Mari Cha IV.
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All Wally yachts are user-friendly, but Bassani could easily handle Esense himself when jibing and tacking using the joysticks linked to the Cariboni Magic Trim system, a handy innovation on a big boat with reduced crew when sheets have to be trimmed or released quickly. The furling headsails and mainsail (the in-boom furling by Marten Spars can roll out the mainsail in a matter of minutes) mean that no time is lost hanking on sails before getting under way. In true Wally style, visible deck hardware is reduced to four Harken winches and two snubbers clustered around the 57-meter pre-preg carbon mast by Hall Spars. The vang and Max Power retractable bow thrusters have push-button controls on the cockpit console. So when you see the shots of Esense with just her captain, Sergio Lottini, at the helm, you can rest assured they are not just a publicity ploy.
High performance in light air and fingertip control were two of Tripp’s priorities in designing the hull and underwater appendages. "This is a big boat, but she feels more akin to a dinghy than a superyacht," says the designer.
Esense produces virtually no bow wave. This was achieved through a flatter aft shape and by pulling the bow up out of the water and the maximum beam aft. This goes against virtually everything Tripp learned at naval architecture school, but the dynamic force of the boat moving through the water prevents her from diving.
"There’s a general satisfaction that we’ve achieved what we set out to do," admits Tripp. "One of the most exciting aspects of the project for me was working with these kinds of proportions, but still keeping the boat balanced. So, although Esense is a very modern-looking yacht, she still has classic proportions. Rather like some of the big-boat designs of the 1920s, you have the feeling she is smaller than she really is."
If I thought the exterior styling of Esense was breathtaking, more surprises were in store belowdecks. A keen sailor from Brittany, working on her first boat project, French interior designer Odile Decq has produced a loft-style layout that defies conventional wisdom. "I dislike narrow corridors and have avoided permanent partitions wherever possible," Decq explains.
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The result is a highly modular interior that can be rearranged virtually at will and according to the occasion. The main salon looks out through a wall of glass over the stern terrace so that the wake is at head height. It is a multifunctional space that can serve as an immense social area with seating for some 40 guests, or it can be transformed into two twin cabins with ensuite bathrooms by folding or sliding a few wall panels into place. The transformation is both uncanny and ingenious, especially considering that the need for storage space has not been overlooked. Open a seemingly featureless carbon laminate panel and it will reveal a Frigomar minibar or VideoWorks audiovisual system. Coming up with adequate storage space on even a 143-foot sailboat is problematic, but on one like Esense, with an interior that resembles an exercise in architectural origami, it is quite remarkable.
The origami simile continues into the atrium amidships that can be accessed from the main-deck hatch. The space resembles a hotel lobby with a red laminated bar unit where guests arriving aboard can be received with a welcoming cocktail. The bar extends into the galley to starboard, but a frosted glass screen folds out to bisect the unit and can fully close off the galley and crew dinette. Testimony to the yacht’s long-range capability, the two custom fridge-freezers are supplemented by a further 800 liters of freezer space under the galley floor. On the port side, a day sofa can similarly be screened off to provide a third guest cabin with two Pullman berths.
A portside corridor is lined on the inboard wall with red and black carbon shelving with chrome trim. "The only thing I couldn’t move was the engine room," says Decq, "so I turned the resulting corridor into a library."
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Photograph by Gilles Martin-Raget. (Click image to enlarge)This corridor leads forward past a dayhead, radio room, electronics room and engine room access to the owner’s suite. The owner’s suite is the only permanent cabin aboard the yacht. It features a study area with a flat-screen computer disguised behind a carbon-fiber panel and a workout bench stored under the bench seating. But the main attraction in the owner’s suite is the bathroom with its enormous shower stall that includes a carbon-fiber bathtub under the hydraulically operated teak and titanium grating. Ordinarily two three-kW boilers would have been sufficient for the yacht’s hot water needs, but because of the bath a third five-kW unit had to be added. Even the glass bathroom partitions are heated to inhibit condensation from developing.
Such bold interior design would not have been possible before the advent of lightweight composite materials, and Decq relishes the extensive use of carbon fiber. "Because carbon fiber is so light, you can play around with it, and I like its shiny, silky smooth finish," she says.
Her geometrical planes complement perfectly the unadorned exterior lines of the hull and flush deck. With a new 148-footer by Tripp for German owner Albert Bull approaching completion, and a 130-footer by Javier Soto Acebal under way, Esense is just the first of a series of 100-plus-foot megasailers from the Wally stable. These are exciting times in Fano, where Luca Bassani is clearly upping the ante in terms of size and claims to have a half-dozen parties interested in similar projects, not to mention a slightly shorter version of Andre Hoek’s 200-foot Pilgrim project.
| Yacht Name: | Esense |
| Yacht Year: | 2006 |
| Yacht Type: | Sail Yacht |
| Builder: | WallyEurope, Italy |
| Interior Design: | Odile Decq |
| Draft Up: | 13' 1" (3.99m) |
| Draft Down: | 19' 8" (5.99m) |
| LOA (Actual length): | 143' 4" (43.69m) |
| LWL (Length of water line): | 124' 11" (38.07m) |
| Displacement: | 140 tons |
| Power: | Caterpillar, 550 hp @ 2100 rpm |
| Max Speed: | 14 kts |
| Cruise Speed: | 12 kts |
| Beam: | 28' 1" (8.56m) |
| Sail Area: | 83,830 sq ft (7,788.06 sq m) |
| Architecture: | Tripp Design Naval Architecture |
| Exterior Design: | Wally |
| Rigging: | Navtec |
| Sail Maker: | North Sails 3DL, carbon |
| Fuel Capacity: | 3,079g (11,655.28L) |
| Water Capacity: | 1,319g (4,992.96L) |
| Hydraulics | Wally hydraulic sail system |
| Number of Staterooms: | 1 owner's, 2 guest cabins, 2 pullman berths, 1 captain's cabin, 2 crew cabins |
| Classification: | RINA |
| Generators: | 2x Westerbeke, 45 kW |
| Air conditioning: | 1x Condaria, 60,000 Btu; 1x Condaria, 108,000 Btu |
| Watermarker: | 2x HEM osmosis, 54 U.S. gal (208 L) per hour |
| Bow thruster: | Max Power, retractable |
| Paint: | Dupont |
| Deck Windlass: | Maxwell VWC 6000 |
| Tenders: | 16' (4.90 m) Castoldi, 125 hp |
| Autopilot: | Furuno with Marsili power unit |
| GPS: | Leica |
| SatCom: | Sea Tel WaveCall 4003, Mini-M Nera |
| Depth Sounder: | B&G Hydra 2000 system |
| Wind Instruments: | B&G Hydra 2000 system |
| Sat TV: | Samsung LCD, 1x 42", 3x 20" |
