Enfant terrible
Juan Kouyoumdjian first hit the headlines with his wing-masted IMS 50 Krazy K, which arrived in Cowes in 1999 with that year’s French Admiral’s Cup and was promptly banned for being too fast. Since then he has designed gold medal-winning Finns and Stars and a plethora of interesting custom and production designs. Above all he is recognised for his success in the Volvo 70 class, his yachts winning every edition of the Volvo Race in that era. Following the announcement of the latest Juan K design for the famous Nautor yard Carlos Pich paid his old friend a visit
It was hard for us to find a day to talk to Juan K, the quintessential enfant terrible of world yacht design; his busy schedule almost made me give up interviewing him. He was asking me for patience and fortu- nately I had it, because he always, always, always ends up surprising me with new projects and technical concepts, and of course with some forceful opinions. This time Juan in Uruguay and I in Barcelona eventually got it together on Skype…
50 SEAHORSE
Seahorse:Oscar time! Juan K: Haha! Boat International’s recent award to our first ClubSwan 80, My Song, was something Swan liked very much – plus having other owners of large yachts sitting on the jury gave the award special merit. The award given to My Song is important because it came quite early in the cycle of this new class; the boat was launched at the end of summer with barely enough time to debut in the Porto Cervo regattas. This season they have the time to really get to know it more and it will be able to better demon- strate its potential. There is already a second example being built and by 2024 there will be two or even three competing together. SH: The new Swan 43 has just been announced, another addition to the grow- ing ClubSwan range of one-designs… JK: Construction began in mid-February. The first prototype will be sailing by the autumn and will then be presented at Boot in Düsseldorf. In the long term the most logical thing is that it replaces the Swan 42. Possibly for one or two seasons both classes will compete together, but Nautor will make that decision at the time. It could also be that if owners of the Swan 42 want to continue racing as a class they can do so within Club Swan events. But everything indicates that in 2024 the new 43 will begin to compete as a class of its own since some 13 boats have already been sold. By 2025 I think there will be a substantial fleet out there. SH: Tell us a little more about this boat… JK: It is designed around the framework of the ORC rule but with dual-use potential. There are three types of clients for this boat: one, the pure sailor who wants to compete in one-design, another for ORC
regattas and the occasional cruise, and a third who wants fast-cruising and maybe also racing one or two regattas for fun. There are two versions of the new boat.
The Cruising version has a shorter bowsprit where the anchor is integrated, it has a more complete interior and therefore weighs a little more. The Racing model has a longer bowsprit and a simpler interior. The Cruising sailplan has a genoa furler, a conventional straight-leech mainsail and permanent backstay; the racer has a square-head main and runners. SH: Is the construction full of innovations? JK: Actually not in this case. We have given a lot of consideration to managing production costs. Pure Engineering and Fibre Mechanics were both intimately involved here, along with the shipyard itself and our design office. We have worked closely together to develop a con- struction package that allows Swan to maintain a reasonable selling price for the boat without compromising performance. SH: I heard a rumour about the ClubSwan 80 being used for the next Ocean Race… JK: It was not an issue that I raised. They called me from The Ocean Race to tell me what to do to get a yacht into the next edi- tion – this edition is what it is. They were wondering if together we could make a class based around the Swan 80; I said yes but not necessarily one-design, maybe have the hull and deck one-design and leave other parts of the yacht open so that the teams could investigate and develop their own ideas. I believe strongly that develop- ment freedom is essential to this race. But I think that now their idea is to re- confirm the Imoca for next time, and so I
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