The magic carpet

Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Magic Carpet3 was the second WallyCento to launch last May nearly a year after Sir Charles Dunstone’s Hamilton, but she is the original WallyCento as the boat around which the WallyCento Box Rule was conceived. The Superyacht Owner was invited to sail the yacht, with her owner on board, during the Monaco Yacht Show, just prior to her transfer down the coast for the Voiles de Saint-Tropez (in which she came third overall in the results for the Wally class).


The brief for Magic Carpet3 was for a yacht that would be very fast and comfortable, suitable for racing but also cruising and day-sailing. The owner also wanted to be able to race against similar designs, hence the WallyCento Box Rule. Alhough her owner spends about a month on board cruising in the summer and weekend sailing, the super lightweight pre-preg carbon hull with nomex core is very much designed for the regatta circuit. In fact, Sir Owen-Jones offered the shipyard workers a bonus for every kilo of weight that could be shaved off the original specs.

“The big challenge with this boat was to make it beautiful,” commented Sir Owen-Jones. “We knew it would be powerful and every single gram we could save on the boat weight went into the keel bulb to make her stiffer. So we knew we could make it fast, but we didn’t know we could also make it pretty. The thing that pleases me most is that it is that the yacht is both quick and pretty, and Wally know how to do that better than anyone else.”


The yacht was built at Wally’s own facility in Ancona, Italy, and designed by Reichel-Pugh, whereas Hamilton, a Judel-Vrolijk design, was built at Green Marine in Hythe and finished at Vitters. The two yachts – along with others such as Nomade IV, the Finot-Cong 100’ built by Maxi Dolphin – represent the beginnings of a class for 100ft maxi racer-cruisers with full interiors, as opposed to the stripped out, pure racing maxis like Rambler 100, Alfa Romeo or Wild Oats.

On the racing side, Magic Carpet3 is proving true to form. Just two weeks after her launch, it competed in Gaastra Palmavela regatta in May off Mallorca, out-racing the rest of the fleet in real time and crossing the finish lines between five and 20 minutes ahead of the closest competitor. It went on to win three of six races in corrected time at the Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo.


“Lindsay has built three boats with Wally and has been the client closest to myself in terms of ideas and philosophy about what a sailboat can be and should be,” said Wally's principal Luca Bassani before leaving the dock. “Wally is renowned for this difference and Lindsay has really embraced what we’re all about.”

Bassani added that he hoped to start construction on a third WallyCento sometime in the near future. Where it would be built is not clear as the Ancona facility is currently at a standstill, so the likelihood is that it would be built with a reputable subcontractor. For his part, Sir Owen-Jones would be delighted to see another WallyCento on the water:

“I would love to see three or four of these 100-footers racing against each other, but even having two is already a miracle,” he commented. “Apart from anything else, it’s crazy to build a big, pure racing boat that three years later is worth nothing. It has to be able to do more than just break records and it’s much easier with this new generation of yacht than it was on the old boats like Alfa Romeo – there was no way you were going to turn that into a cruiser.”

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