Inside the wallyrocket51: The six-tonne racer taking aim at the TP52 fleet

Built to challenge the dominance of the TP52 circuit, Wally’s new 15-metre wallyrocket51 combines lightweight construction, one-design racing and cutting-edge performance engineering in a bold rethink of grand-prix sailing.

Grand-prix racing is usually high drama: foam flying, sails straining, carbon slicing through chop. But today it’s flat calm. No spray, no chaos. I’m bone dry. It’s the kind of day that should leave a boat feeling sticky. But the wallyrocket51 isn’t dragging its heels. On day six of testing, even Valencia’s fickle breeze can’t hide its potential.

When Wally announced its entry into the grand-prix game it planted a stake in the ground. Conceived to be the fastest boat on corrected time, the wallyrocket51 takes aim at the TP52 series, which has ruled the race circuit for nearly two decades. 

But where that fleet is locked into a costly arms race by the box rule, Wally chose a different path: a one-design series that could compete both in fleet racing and under IRC and ORC without the chequebook wars. A boat that rewards skill over spend.

To hit that sweet spot – fast enough to win on the water, optimised enough to win on paper – requires some rulebook gymnastics. To get it right, Wally turned to Botin Partners, the design brains behind the top TP52s and a force in the America’s Cup arena. 

It also brought in racing heavyweights Vasco Vascotto and Guillermo Parada, who have spent years at the sharp end of grand-prix competition and on the TP circuit. Together, they chased the holy grail of high-performance monohulls.

“We know 52 feet is the magic size for racing boats,” says Adolfo Carrau, partner and senior designer at Botin. “They rate well, and they win under IRC and ORC. Every kind of course was considered in the design, from windward-leeward laps to offshore 600-milers like the Caribbean 600 and Fastnet.” 

But the real goal was lightness. “We wanted to make the boat as light as possible. By making it slightly smaller, we were able to make it significantly lighter, which makes a real difference downwind. It starts planing earlier and performs well in light airs.”

I get to see that logic in motion as we test. The breeze hovers at eight knots, but we’re matching it, boat speed for wind speed. I’m at the wheel – hands light, helm smooth, with no resistance. Most of the crew regularly race with the owner on his Wally 82, one of several boats he campaigns as Django, and they’re sharp.

The rig is a tried-and-tested formula: fractional, with raked spreaders and twin topmast backstays allowing more precise control over mast bend and sail shape. It’s paired with real-time load sensors, turning rig tuning into a repeatable science. 

The spars are high-modulus carbon with Future Fibres’ AEROsix rigging, while hull in pre-preg carbon fibre with a foam sandwich core, keeping the structure stiff and the weight low. The result? Six tonnes all up – crucially, a tonne lighter than a TP52. “That’s a  15 per cent weight saving,” Vascotto says. It comes down to simple maths. “By reducing the dimension, you reduce the loads – and suddenly, you have a boat that’s significantly lighter.”

To make that saving count on the course, Wally added water ballast – borrowed from the offshore playbook but gaining ground in high-performance builds. It delivers righting moment upwind without stacking bodies on the rail, then sheds the weight downwind. 

It takes around 80 seconds to fill, 60 to ditch, and just six or seven to transfer from side to side. The payoff is a leaner programme, reducing crew requirement from 15 to 11 and lowering campaign costs.

Hull No 1 was initially fitted with a trim tab on the trailing edge of the keel to help with lift and leeway. But just as it hit the water, the IRC announced a rule change, introducing steeper penalties for trim tabs. “The first hull is effectively a development platform, so we decided to go with a fixed keel for now,” Carrau says. The question is whether the team will out-sail the rating hit – or be fast enough without the trim tab to avoid the penalty altogether.

This level of racing refinement is embedded in Wally’s DNA. The wallycento proved the shipyard could hold its own in the big leagues. But the wallyrocket51 is a step change in scale and a distillation of the brand’s racing know-how. 

It might seem an unexpected move for a brand that has latterly focused on expanding its range of power yachts and large cruiser-racers, but for founder Luca Bassani it reflects a broader shift in how owners choose to spend their time on the water. “Wally is known for its cruiser-racers, but the market today is becoming more specialised,” he says. “Less and less we see owners who want to race their cruising boats – they prefer to have a very comfortable yacht for cruising, and an extreme sailboat to race at the highest level.”

Five more hulls are already in production at Wally’s new facility in Ravenna, acquired by owner Ferretti Group last year. Hull No 1 will make its racing debut at the Admiral’s Cup this summer. The conditions, the crew, the tactics – everything will have to align for it to prove that it can take on the best. 

But if the early speed tests are anything to go by, Wally may have found exactly what it wanted: the sweet spot that balances rulebook sensibility with raw speed.

First published in the September 2025 issue of BOAT International's Life Under Sail. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.