From beast to beauty… still with a little beast left in there somewhere. Juan K has now established an exciting and fruitful longterm relationship with Nautors’ Swan – highlighting the ambition that still motivates the once (and in many ways still) conservative Finnish yacht builder, now in its 57th year of operation, in order to stay in front of the competition. The latest product of this co-operation is the ClubSwan 80 one-design which debuted last autumn in the Mediterranean. Very beautiful (of course), very fast and bringing the blend of style and modernity now expected of a Juan K creation, even for a more cautious market. Steve Jobs boasted of creating products people had no idea they wanted; we thought of that when first talking to Juan K about his modern, classically stylish and eye-wateringly desirable new 80-footer. A scale at which the one-design model has a solid history of failure. But not this time, we feel
budget. In a Mini this idea is utopian. SH: And you have plenty of other things away from racing right now… JK: We have three aluminium superyachts under construction, two of 54m and another of 44m. We are also in the early draft stages for a third superyacht, but this has been slowed down a bit due to our current over- load of work; but we will resume it in September. This is another 50m superyacht, again built in aluminium, but with a new type of keel that has yet to be tried at this scale. It is a pivoting external centreboard, like the one from the Bénéteau First Class 8 that you know so well (laughs). It is an inter- esting alternative to a lifting keel. This solu- tion allows you to have a very efficient deep 9.5m draft keel that can reduce to 2m sailing close to the coast or when the boat is at anchor – while still retaining good righting moment and immersed area. At the other end of the scale, we are
developing a new starter dinghy for kids. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do; I think in 2023 there’s a gap in the market for some- thing more interesting than the Optimist! SH: And what about the Star you designed? JK: It is still going very well and this year I will be back with my own boat. In the last two years the boat has had good results. Enrico Chieffi won the Europeans and I finished fourth. Then we both finished in the top 10 in the world championship. SH: And the current Olympic scene… JK: Speaking frankly, the sailing Olympics went to shit. For me these were the heroes of sailing, they had to combine a good athletic level, great finesse in sailing and a deep understanding of technical develop- ment. Paul Elvström is a perfect example of a talented sailor who also invented new things that within a short time became standard on small boats everywhere. Today it is impossible for another
character like Elvström to emerge, and it seems to me a big loss. World Sailing thought that it was going to lower costs
and universalise Olympic sailing with the new one-designs, but it was completely wrong. The new classes are very expensive, even the Laser is overpriced. They have raised prices and alienated the majority of the sailors because the new Olympic classes have no national fleets, only Olympic teams plus a few more hopefuls sail these boats today. They hold their own events, rarely attracting, for example, more than 30 Nacra 17s to a championship. In sailing clubs there are no fleets of
these classes. They have gone totally against traditional sailing. Meanwhile, ex- Olympic development classes like the Finn continue to have active fleets. I understand that you have to modernise, kite-foiling for example is an exceptional discipline; but the Olympic one-design boards only have about 100 active participants while open events attract many times this number – and the Olympic sailors do not use the one-design board at these open events. In the end the one-design classes become
more expensive, blocking technical evolu- tion and decreasing the number of people who are interested. SH:What about the America’s Cup… JK: Unfortunately, I was not able to get fully involved this time – which I admit I would like to have done. At the beginning of the last AC cycle I was in discussion with some teams and they each made me the same proposal: ‘We’d love you to join us full-time… starting tomorrow.’ At the time, however, I had five or six
major contracts that I could not walk away from. So unfortunately I have only been able to do some AC consultancy work from time to time, rather than anything perma- nent. But I still follow the Cup with a passion. I find the boats exceptional, maybe a bit too technical – a very clever concept, but if you don’t have the mechatronics working right you can’t even go sailing. On the contrary, a mediocre concept that has good mechatronics is more
efficient. To give an example, in the Star class everyone developed their boats but if a Robert Scheidt or an Iain Percy had a problem with a pulley they didn’t lose the race… in fact, they won anyway! In the current America’s Cup if the systems don’t work perfectly you don’t have any chance of victory, which is why it seems to me that they are boats with overly complex systems which in some ways diminish the impor- tance of innovation. I believe I could be useful at the beginning of the AC75 design phase, but later on I would have little to contribute designing an insignificant valve in a hydraulic system! SH: Foiling or sailing… JK: They are two worlds apart; foiling will not make it to production boats. It requires the craft to be very light and that means much higher costs, and also complicates maintenance. I think foiling and cruising are incompatible. Nor is it a type of navigation suitable for everyone; when you only sail at more than 20-25kt of speed it is stressful, the opposite to what lovers of cruising naviga- tion are seeking… and they make up 99 per cent of the world’s shipyard customers. I think the foiling world despises
traditional sailing, and that is a big mistake. Except for kites and windsurfing, only a minority of sailors practise foiling; and it is not only because of the economic aspect, but also because of the mentality it requires. There is room for both worlds – you cannot say ‘if you don’t fly you are not a sailor’, it leads nowhere, it is nonsense. In traditional sailing the regattas are
close, with boat-to-boat contact, much more tactical and much more exciting. It is not running and running around a track as if you are sailing against the clock. For the great America’s Cup sailors
combining the concept of foiling with the proximity of a match race is exciting, but they are an exception in the world of sailing. For true amateur sailing foiling doesn’t seem real to me…
SEAHORSE 53
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CARLO BORLENGHI
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