Each month we pick out an iconic boat that can lay claim to the title of world’s coolest boat. This month, we take a closer look at the 118 Wallypower.
Michael Bay’s 2005 sci-fi thriller movie The Island was about a group of people isolated in a compound, they’re told, due to nuclear fallout.
As the film progresses, we learn that these people are in fact clones of wealthy individuals, created for organ-harvesting should it ever be needed.
Because they are clones, they experience dreams based on lives they have not lived. One of them is a clone of a famous yacht designer, and so his dreams are of superyachts.
The studio needed the most dramatic, the most outstanding, the most iconic superyacht on the water to illustrate this, and so, of course, they chose the Wallypower 118.
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The brainchild of Luca Bassani, heir to a Milanese lighting fortune and owner of Monaco-based Wally Yachts, it was the first foray into large motor yachts for his yard, noted up until then for building edgy sailboat designs and being named after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, Wally Gator (a favourite of his young son).
The most outstanding feature of this sensational beast is the styling. At 118ft long and completely unique, it appears to have been constructed using origami. The hull is carbon fibre and GRP composite, and the superstructure is triple-laminated tinted glass on a carbon frame.
And if that’s not wacky enough, everything on the exterior of the yacht, from the cleats to the tables to the seating, is concealed – rising out of the deck when required.
If Darth Vader had a superyacht, it would look like this.
Such an outstanding design deserves supreme performance, so the pair of 370hp diesel engines, producing a top speed of 9 knots, appears initially underwhelming. But fear not, these are merely an amuse-bouche, fitted only to manoeuvre the boat out of the harbour.
Once at sea the captain is free to light up the three Vericor TF50 gas turbines, unleashing over 16,800hp through three water jets (two steerable, one fixed) and propelling this incredible machine past 60 knots, according to the manufacturer.
Although conceived as a production yacht, reportedly only one was ever built. The price at the time? An impressive £17 million.
118 Wallypower specifications
Year: 2004
LOA: 118ft 1in (36.0m)
Beam: 29ft 6in (9.0m)
Power: 16,800hp
Top speed: 65 knots
Price: £17 million
Cool rating: Absolute zero (-273° C)
To submit your suggestion for the world’s coolest boat, head over to the MBY forum.