Type: Fast Cruising/Racing Sloop
Shipyard: Wally Europe Yard
Delivery: 2008
Hull: Carbon composite
LOA: 148 ft
Beam: 28 ft
Draft: 20 ft (keel up 14 ft)
Mast: 195 ft
Displacement: 150 t
SAUDADE is the largest Wally yacht ever built thus far. Displacing a mere 150 tons this elegant Tripp Design is fabricated in advanced pre-preg carbon composites. To meet the globetrotting needs of her very experienced owner, Tripp designed a displacement/length ratio of only 71, and combined this with a fully ballasted lifting keel. The simple result: speed and plenty of it, at all points of sail and in the lightest of winds.
SAUDADES 195 ft mast head rig weighs just under 5 tons and carries 836 square meters of sail area, a furling boom and furling jib. Uniquely, her four sets of sweptback spreaders relinquish the need for running backstays which make short handed sail handling a real breeze.
The yachts exterior styling is the combined effort of Bill Tripp and Eidsgaard Design who incidentally was also responsible for her immaculate interior. Characterised by her low and aggressive pilothouse, perfectly in balance with her sleek hull lines the helmsman is afforded a commanding view over an otherwise flush teak clad deck. From her expansive ‘shaded’ cockpit one enters the main salon through a wide sliding cockpit door. Only several steps down the flowing connection between these two areas presents a real feeling of inside/outside living.
The interior layout provides for the guest quarters aft with the spacious master suite, the master office and two double guest cabins, and for the crew quarters forward with the captain’s cabin and two double cabins. The interior living areas are flooded with natural light using ceiling hatches and large deckhouse windows. Floor levels and seating were positioned for the benefit of the guests, providing views to the horizon-line from the interior, an unusual feature for sailing yachts of this size.
Wally’s research and development conducted on the sound and vibration insulation of the large engine room results in very low noise and vibration levels – only 48 decibels in the main salon and the guest cabins.
This outstanding world-ranging yacht that is equally at home on the race tracker is the winner of the 2009 World Superyacht Award as “Best Sailig Yacht 45-meter + Size Range”.