We reveal the secrets of the Wally 80 winning regattas 20 years after its launching

There is a boat that is 20 years old and has just won, for the third time in a row, the SuperYacht Cup in Palma de Mallorca. Her name is Rose, and she is a Wally 80 (24 meters) built in 2005(we had also been on board the boat when she was called Tango G).

What are the secrets of the “eternal youth” of this boat, capable of putting much younger and larger beasts like the Southern Wind 108 (launching: 2023) Gelliceaux, the 39-meter Linnea Aurora (2024), the 42-meter Pendennis Vijonara (2023), just to name a few of her opponents in Palma? We had them told to us by those who were on board in the key role of mainsail trimmer. Fabio De Simoni, experienced sailmaker and sales manager for Ubi Maior. Here is his analysis of the Rose.

Wally 80 Rose, history of the evergreen boat

Rose is a Wally 80 built in Tunisia in 2005 and finished outfitted in Fano under the name Tango for Italian owner Carlo Sama. More valid than ever is the expression “he who starts well is half the work,” the boat was built without much attention to budget with the best materials and technology available at the time.

The design of the yard/brand founded by Luca Bassani was entrusted to one of the most important names in modern boating, the Farr Yacht Design studio. The general concept, very dear to all Wally’s, was that of a clean boat on deck to sail fast with a small crew.

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Not born for racing

That’s right, it is not a boat born for racing but is designed to be fast and give maximum feel to those who steer it, and it has all the parameters to be so, a light displacement still in line with modern 80-foot pulls, a generous draft of 4.5 meters, a significant sail area, and well-designed water lines.

In those years, it is my opinion, great boats were built not only by Wally, the X-50 and all the various X-Yachts of that generation come to mind, the Marten 49, the Baltic 50; the Cookson 50 and the TP52s were conceived in those years but also Black Jack (formerly Esimit Europa) and Wild Oats.

The golden age of “all-round” boats

All of these boats are characterized and accumulated by a remarkable overall balance and the absence of any particular weaknesses; they do averagely well in all conditions, and this in the variable conditions of the Mediterranean is a great asset.

If you want to cross the Atlantic as fast as possible you need a boat that goes strong downwind in sustained air but doesn’t need to also be good upwind in light air…

The change of owner and the changes

The boat in 2013 changed owners and with its second owner has participated for years in the Wally racing circuit, which initially started with a “gentleman’s race” spirit and then turned into a competition at the highest level.

In the last years of the circuit, i.e., between 2014 and 2019, the owners of all boats in the fleet have been competing against each other to make changes to improve their craft and to hire the best sailors around.

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All the secrets of Wally 80

The boat in this period has been continually updated, first with a carbon rigging, then with a bowsprit to tack gennakers, then with a new mast of the same length but lighter and smaller section than the original, again a new lighter carbon rigging, then three different booms, lighter each time, a new vang with a through strop much less heavy than the previous hydraulic one, new forestay and jib cunningam adjustment systems, halyard locks, and of course a new sail plan.

The study of sails was relentless always looking for the design that would work best.

Tango, in addition to the high level of Wally circuit competitiveness in general, took advantage of even greater competitiveness in the “small” class in which consistently ran 4/5 Wally 80s, and 2/3 Wally 77s so called but with a length out all and performance very similar if not equal to that of the 80s.

These 7/8 boats with very similar performance and all brought to perfection by their crews made it easier to see the benefits or otherwise of any modification, this led to an incredible development of each of these boats.

When you have a lot of identical or very similar boats sailing for a long time always together it is easy to see if by dropping two diagonal turns you gain something or not, if a certain sail makes you go down more aft or not, this is why very often when you take a one design boat or a box rule to plywood racing whether it is Irc or Orc it gets good results, because it has been more developed than a prototype sailing only in the middle of the sea and you never have visual evidence of what a modification does or does not gain you, you just rely on feel.

In addition to racing, the crews, particularly Tango’s, were engaged in endless training sessions in which they tried to refine every single maneuver to avoid mistakes and to make it more efficient.

The deck plans were refined and solutions were found to make “fast” any maneuver that might happen in the race, the lowering of a gennaker, a peeling, a gybe, and because of this, the power of the winches was also raised to impressive levels.

One position I love on this boat is that of the mainsailer, the sheet is on a captive winch managed by a proportional Joy stick, the harder you press the lever the faster you cock or let go of the sheet, the slower you press the lever, the slower you let go or cock the sheet without the complications of managing the sheet on the winch.

The technological evolution

Over the years, of course, the much-famous square top mainsail arrived and with it the necessary flyers with a very clever system, a 2:1 with its own dedicated winch for a quick capping of the line coming out of a tack or gybe while on the other end of the hoist acts an adjustable piston through two simple buttons on the helmsman’s console, this allows continuous and immediate adjustment by the mainsailer, who does not have to communicate his will to any other person and that too without the complications of managing the line on a winch, take off from self tailing to let go, put back on to capping etc. moreover the piston never gets tired.

This combination of the joystick for the sheet and the various buttons on the helm console for managing the mainsail base, cunningam, and steering wheels allows the mainsailer continuous, real-time adjustment of all maneuvers without waste of time, I love it, it is a system that I would bring back on pure racers as well.

Today the boat has a quieter racing schedule than before but is still kept in splendid shape and all the work done in those years is an invaluable asset.

The current crew consists of internationally recognized professionals and friends of the owner, good amateurs, no rock stars but always the same over the past 4 years.

To conclude and to want to find a “recipe” to the longevity of this boat I would say that the balance of the design and the excellent execution by the yard form the basis for having a boat that always does averagely well in all conditions, the development and continuous updating over the years make it a more fine-tuned boat than others on the race course.

Fabio De Simoni

• The overall standings of the SuperYacht Cup in Palma