With the first of his three consecutive Volvo-winning VO70s, ABN Amro One, Juan K established himself as the king of the ‘sailing powerboat’, but when it comes to maxi performance the Argentine-born designer cares more about overall efficiency and does not automatically endorse hitting the upper size limit. So it was when George David wanted a replacement for his previous 100-footers, Juan K drew him Rambler 88, which though well under maximum size for the maxi class has amassed an enviable array of silverware over its four seasons – including taking line honours and the overall handicap win under IRC in the most recent RORC Caribbean 600
Never a dull moment
Carlos Pich spends a typically enjoyable day with designer Juan Kouyoumdjian
Interviewing JK is always fun. His open mind and character, his natural disposition to speak freely which prevents him from eluding answers. The occasional salvo aimed at the establishment is also to be expected and savoured. With Juan you can talk about anything and he is never afraid of saying things that others consider too risky to express! And before you know it he will have steered the conversation into new areas you never even saw coming…
The America’s Cup At first I thought it was interesting, it was something exceptional. I started with a lot of
enthusiasm but with the passage of time it became mostly a technical process; of course that is very interesting but it is not what many of us think of as the America’s Cup. It’s a contact race, an intense boat-to-boat match race. Although the catamarans were technologically very advanced the concept of ‘contact’ had disappeared. SH:And the new AC75… JK: From a conceptual point of view I think it’s brilliant, from the point of view of returning to the monohull it seems like a leg- pull. The new boat has nothing to do with a monohull, the hull is a fuselage that holds the foils and rigging – from the Archimedes point of view it has nothing to do with a monocoque. I am not sure that it will arouse the interest of many potential challengers, although ultimately for the AC it does not take much, just a Defender and Challenger. SH:You seem very sceptical… JK:As exciting as this new trend of foiling is,
and it has a very important space in our sport, when it is linked to the America’s Cup I do not see it as the right path to take. The numbers speak for themselves: in Valencia 2007 the organiser, America’s Cup Manage- ment (ACM), finished with a surplus of ⇔120 million that was then distributed among the competitors. That is the bar by which all subsequent editions, including the next one, should be judged. SH:Will this new hybrid between catamaran and monohull be able to recapture the spirit of the America’s Cup? JK: No, not at all, there will be even less excitement in the pre-start than with the catamarans. The performance of these boats will vary hugely with speed, from a righting moment of six tonne-metres to 50! Within that range we will not see acceler-
ations in the pre-start, the boats will enter the start box flying and the one that comes off the foils will lose the regatta. I have the
SEAHORSE 45 w
CARLO BORLENGHI
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