Kenora, it looks like it was drawn today but it is 20 years old. Here is his story

It looks like it was drawn today, yet it is 20 years old. We tell you how a yachting icon is born. Named Kenora, it is 32 meters long and is one of Wally’s little-known masterpieces

“Mi recommend, that the deckhouse does not look like a flying saucer accidentally resting on the deck“-Luca Bassani recalls about the long meetings with the future owner and the various actors involved around the Kenora project.

“The engineer and his wife were very clear about the end result that those long meetings on the drawing board were supposed to have,” Bassani continues. starting with the style of the deckhouse which, as the shipowner was fond of repeating often, had to be harmonious and well integrated with everything else and not, precisely, a flying saucer, or platillo volador to be precise, with those frequent Spanish-language points that were characteristic of the engineer, a legacy of his many years spent in Argentina“.

This is the late 1990s. Wally is a well-known brand that has already given a mighty shove to traditional yachting Moving the bar very high. Featured in the seas and on covers halfway around the world are Genie of the Lamp, Tiketitan, Walligator and Wally B, to name the most prominent projects. And it was from the mold of the Wally B that Kenora took shape in 1999, inheriting, inevitably, its dimensions, but separating itself from it in spirit and philosophy-interior and deck layout.

It has been 20 years since then. The large 107-foot (32.72 m) Wally was supposed to celebrate her first 20 years with a party in Portofino with friends and ownership, but recent events disrupted plans, and so, we thought we would celebrate her on these very pages by recounting her genesis and evolution over these years of long sailing and many regattas.

The relationship between Kenora and her owner is still strong and is reflected in the current condition of the boat: a little girl who looks like she has been out of the yard for a few weeks. “I got married to a steel engineer who was passionate about sailing and who introduced me to that world from the very beginning,” the shipowner, of course reporting from Kenora, tells us. starting with an old wooden sloop that was very difficult to maneuver immediately after married in Argentina.

Over the years we then had a Baltic 51, and then moved on to a Baltic 84 with which we toured the world; on the way back we got excited with Luca Bassani’s ideas and with him we planned what was to be the boat for the next world tour. Architect Luca Brenta interpreted our wishes to perfection, creating a boat that is fast but at the same time very comfortable. Kenora was the realization of a dream that, unfortunately, my husband was not able to fully enjoy, leaving us in 2003“.

Effectively, the great Wally reflects the choices of a mature shipowner who wanted an authentic blue water cruiser to sail fast and serene across the seas of the world. Hence very ‘conservative’ construction choices – to give an example Kenora is a battleship built by Pendennis with a displacement of 15 tons greater than the Wallygator (now Nariida), or the large owner’s cabin amidships, and full-beam, in the quietest spot to rest during long sailings. In fact, all interiors are designed to be practical and cozy in the purest sense of ‘home away from home’.

Her design efforts immediately earned her the Best Sailing Yacht under 34 m award from ShowBoats magazine in 2000 and the International Superyacht Society’s Best Sail Boat between 23 and 36 meters in 1999.

But Kenora’s life was not limited to boating: “Kenora was yes designed for long cruises, but for 10 years it also participated in Wally class regattas – continues the owner in her story – also thanks to being accompanied in recent years by a companion who is also a great lover of sailing and a commander who has assisted us from the beginning of our challenge (for 15 years aboard the boat, ed.).

I participated directly with Luca Brenta in the interior design of Kenora. The boat reflects our tastes and desires having once again succeeded in recreating the desired spirit“. Among the things that should not be missing on board, the owner concludes: “Enthusiasm! even after a bad crossing. The sea has always been a fundamental part of my life, and regattas fill you with energy; Kenora and his crew of 23 young girls and boys knew how to fill our days with cheerfulness and good humor even when not great results were achieved“.

GALLERY – KENORA, THE LADY IN RED

Without lapsing into rhetoric: Kenora even today is for all intents and purposes an icon, a successful and timeless design like the many Wallys of that period-and not only of that period- starring in the New Wave that so much influenced the stylistic, philosophical and design canons of world sailing. For detail lovers, Kenora is 32.72 meters long, has a maximum beam close to 8, fishing 4.20 and, although not polite to a young lady, a displacement of 88 tons.

When sailing, it can count on the considerable sail area of 576 square meters and is one of the great examples of the flair of Luca Brenta & C. If from an aesthetic point of view the goal of not looking like a ‘platillo volador,’ as per the initial indications of the owners, is perfectly successful. Like a flying saucer, however, Kenora has had quite a journey through time with its 20 years well worn, the result also of a couple of light refits in 2014 and 2016 in the yard that saw her birth.

Luigi Magliari Galante

KENORA’S NUMBERS

Length. f.t.: 32.72 m
Max. beam: 7.92 m
Fishing: 4.20 m
Height difference: 88.5 t
Sup. Vel.: 576 sqm
6 guests + 4 crew
Project: Luca Brenta
Construction: Pendennis Shipyard
Motorization: 1x Caterpillar 385 horsepower
Generators: 2 x Onans 27.5 kW
Mast and boom: Southern Spars
Rigging: EC6

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