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The Wally Revolution: How wallywhy Is Rewriting Yacht Design

Yachting Guide
wallywhy 150

Defying Dimensions

Wally has never built an ordinary boat. The brand exists because one man could not find the yacht he wanted, so he built it himself. Three decades on, that instinct still drives everything. For Hong Kong owners, it produces volume that defies its length.

Starship Yachts, the premier yacht sales, brokerage, and servicing company in Asia, today announced its official appointment as the exclusive distributor for LOMAC Milano in Hong Kong. This strategic partnership brings LOMAC’s prestigious range of rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) to Starship Yachts’ discerning clientele, further solidifying the company’s position as a leading destination for luxury marine craft in the region.

  • One man, one idea

    Luca Bassani learned to sail as a boy in Portofino. In 1991 he wanted a yacht that was fast, safe for his family, and free of clutter. Nothing on the market fit. So he built it himself. He called it the Wallygator, the first boat in the world to carry a carbon mast after the 1992 America's Cup. Wally followed in 1994.

    Every early Wally came from his hand. The brand stayed small. It launched close to fifty sailing superyachts and earned a reputation for quality few could match. The signatures held throughout: carbon for lightness, clean decks, function before all else.

Materials that improve with time

While rivals built soft, rounded hulls, Wally went sharp and angular. Its wallypower118 became a design landmark, shown at Wallpaper’s New Wave exhibition and selected by San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art.

Ferretti Group took a majority stake in 2019 and full ownership by 2025. Bassani stayed on as chief designer. The DNA survived intact. What changed was scale.

Wallywhy200 luxury yacht cruising through the open sea, leaving a white water trail behind under a clear blue sky.
LOMAC Club

The wallywhy series, explained

The wallywhy range is the headline, and the name is a clue: w for Wally, h for hybrid, y for yacht, with the number marking gross tonnage. The wallywhy200 packs roughly 200 gross tonnes of volume, the kind you expect on a 100-footer, into an 88-foot hull. The wallywhy150 sits near 78 feet. The wallywhy100 near 70.

The architecture does the work. Full-beam, wide-body, no side walkways. The interior runs the full width of the hull. The result is the space of a far larger yacht in a smaller, more efficient package.

View full Range

Why it works in Hong Kong

Here, berth length and running costs shape every decision. A wallywhy delivers superyacht volume at a length that fits local marinas. A full-beam saloon built for entertaining. Statement design in a harbour of flybridges.

Explore the Wally range at Starship Yachts, or arrange a viewing.

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