WallyNano

Images Courtesy: Hoek Design Naval Architects

If the Spirit-of-Tradition has a Web star, it is the WallyNano. People gape at this all-modern classic, as she tacks, sails and blast reaches.  Can you blame them? For not a ton of money, just about anybody can have this 21st-century re-imagining of the Spirit-of-Tradition narrative, via Hoek Design and originally built by Nedship in Turkey.

Note: An updated version is now available from Doomernik Yachts. It is pictured below.

Described by critics as “painfully good-looking,” the WallyNano is so spare on deck that its sheer is interesting to the eye, both on the leeward and windward sides. Notice how crisp the transom and stem are? And follow the bows up front. And how its throw-back toe-rail subsides amidships into a kind of half cockpit, that then slowly resolves into the stern. It’s like Brian Eno music: Zen, odd and compelling. The latest 2016 build has all the latest go-fast: Vacuum-infused carbon hull, North 3DL main and jib, all-carbon rig and a palladium leaf cove stripe, that was most probably recycled out of waste catalytic converters from cars. Nice touch.

Apparently, the WallyNano MkII is back in production, and getting sold into Asia and Italy. We can’t wait to see one stateside.

Year 2008
Length overall 11.30 m
Maximum beam 2.60 m
Draft 2.60 m
Displacement 2.600 kg
Sail area 75 m²