In 2007 Luca Bassani of the luxury yacht brand Wally is in a meeting with Pierre-Alexis Dumas, scion of the Herm√©s dynasty and creative director of his family’s luxury goods brand. “I wan’t us to build the ultimate luxury boat, one as big as an island”, tells Bassani. Dumas answers: ” If the boat can run on sustainable energy, we’re in business.”

2 years later they are indeed in business, as hybrid company WHY (Wally Hermes Yachts), unveiling a scale-one maquette of its extraordinary design for the Monaco Yacht Show. Dumas and Bassani have masterminded a radical new blueprint for energy-efficient luxury boating. They have also blown traditional superyacht design right out of the water.

Dumas says: “because superyachts are basically oil tankers, they require huge levels of fuel to get them anywhere”. In 2013 oil prices will reach the highest level in history they wanted to design the most fuel-efficient luxury boat possible. Fuel efficiency in luxury boats requires hybrid propulsion – minimal traditional fuel boosted with sustainable energy from sails, solar panels and windmills. Hybrid propulsion means a genteel top speed of 12 knots, this is not enough if you wan’t to keep a huge luxury yacht stable. And Wally didn’t want to make the passengers seasick, so they had to come up with a solution.

Salvation came in the form of Roar Ramde, an 85-year-old Norwegian navel engineer who had designed a super wide hull for a boat that was made specifically for laying cables in the stormy North Atlantic. Bassani asked him to adapt his hull for the luxury boat. They were in business.

The WHY design team made the plans for a super yacht with unseen dimensions. 58m long and 38m wide. The main deck being practically an equilateral triangle, they didn’t had to use the traditional high-rise superstructure for the boat. Instead they kept the form, filling it up with the most luxury rooms you can imagine. Full spa and gym? Yes, please. Horizon-Kissing, 25m lap pool encircling the helicopter pad? Go, on, then. Bedrooms with 25m windows, lounges, a dining room, a music centre, offices, a reading area, a patio with plated trees? All possible. As for Dumas’s need for self-contained energy sources, 900 sq m of solar panelling covers the top and sides of the boat, the entire system operating like a huge Venetian blind, which turns and retracts at the touch of a button. The three-year construction can only begin if they find a client to accept the ‚Ǩ1m per sq m price tag.

Jonas Smets

architecture, lifestyle, object

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