The designer of three consecutive Volvo Ocean Races
Juan Kouyoumdjian — known as Juan K — is a Franco-Argentinian naval architect born in 1971 in Buenos Aires. Trained at the University of Southampton Solent, he founded his firm Juan Yacht Design in 1997. The studio is based in Valencia (Spain), with offices in London and Lavrion (Greece).
Three consecutive Volvo Ocean Races
His most notable achievement: the VO70s that won three consecutive editions of the Volvo Ocean Race between 2005 and 2012.
- ABN AMRO ONE — winner 2005-2006 with Mike Sanderson
- Ericsson 4 — winner 2008-2009 with Torben Grael
- Groupama 4 — winner 2011-2012 with Franck Cammas
IMOCA for the Vendée Globe
Juan K has designed several IMOCA 60s competing in the Vendée Globe:
- Hugo Boss (2007) — Alex Thomson
- Cheminées Poujoulat (2011) — Bernard Stamm
- Arkea-Paprec (2019) — Sébastien Simon
- Corum L'Épargne (2020) — Nicolas Troussel, hull built by CDK Technologies in Port-la-Forêt. The boat dismasted during the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe and again in September 2023, marking the end of the project.
Nautor's Swan partnership since 2016
Since 2016, Juan K has designed the entire ClubSwan range for Finnish builder Nautor's Swan: ClubSwan 36, 43, 50, 80, and 125. The ClubSwan 80 "My Song", built by Persico Marine, won the BOAT Design & Innovation Award 2023 for best naval architecture in a sailboat.
Other recent references: the maxi Rambler 88 and LawConnect, winner of the 2023 Rolex Sydney-Hobart.
Skysat on board
Skysat worked on the IMOCA Corum L'Épargne (CDK, 2020).
