http://www.boatinternational.com | June 2018OWNERS’ CLUB
PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES; CARLO BORLENGHI; ROLEX/CARLO BORLENG
HI
I could see it was going to require a serious
number of crew without really going very fast,
which didn’t seem like a good combination to me.”
All of which led him to a second love-at-first-
sight moment, this time aged 50. “I was looking
at a magazine, dreaming about boats, and I saw
a photograph of Genie of the Lamp. It took about
a minute to realise it was exactly what I wanted.”
Genie was the revolutionary 24 metre sloop
launched in 1995 by Luca Bassani, and its flush,
clean deck left Sir Lindsay stunned. “Nobody had
ever told me that such a boat existed.”
Meeting Bassani was similarly momentous for
Sir Lindsay. “We’re very diferent, but I like people
who are very diferent to me. We complete each
other. He too was a mixture of a creative person
and a sensible person. But I would say he’s 80 per
cent creative to 20 per cent sensible, maybe even
90-10. I’m more like 50-50.”
Bassani let Sir Lindsay and his wife
sail from Saint-Tropez to Corsica and
back on board Genie, with a crew of
two, and Sir Lindsay was sold on her.
Unfortunately Bassani had sold her to
someone else but he had an idea. He
wanted Sir Lindsay to build a new boat,
“like Genie but better” and in efect be
Bassani ’s first customer for a brand he
was hoping to establish. “He convinced
me to do it.” And so Wally was born.
Eighteen months later Sir Lindsay
took possession of the first Magic Carpet –
“because Genie of the Lamp, the Arabian Knights...
Magic Carpet!” Twenty-one years on and here we
sit, around a table in the saloon of Magic Carpet^3 ,
moored in Saint-Tropez and being readied for a
new season of Wally Class regattas. “Magic Carpet
has, I think, been on the podium of the Wally
championship every year for 20 years,” he says
proudly, and at the age of 72 he’s as excited as ever
about the impending competition. “Every year weLeft: at the 1998
Cannes Film
Festival with
Kate Moss and
Claudia Schiffer.
Right: winning
the 2006 Maxi
Yacht Rolex CupLeft: on board with daughter Céleste
and crew. Right: gracing the cover
of the French edition of Fortune
magazine in his L’Oréal days95