Volvo Ocean Race designer had hands full with three yachts

Half of the boats in the race will be the work of the man commonly known as Juan K: Groupama 4, Puma Ocean Racing's Mar Mostro and Telefónica.

Designing one yacht for the Volvo Ocean Race is enough of a challenge. Juan Kouyoumdjian designed three of them.

Half of the yachts in the race will be the work of the man commonly known as Juan K: Groupama 4, Puma Ocean Racing's Mar Mostro and Telefónica.

The Argentine has designed the winners of the last two Volvo Ocean Races.

He keeps each team's plans a secret during the design stage, and he plans to remain tight-lipped about the projects until they sail into Cape Town after the first leg later this month.

He has said that the same people worked together in the research phase for all three boats.

"Then we reached a point where we had to start building things," he told a Groupama publication. "We left theory for reality and we started working within three different departments.

"When looking at the three boats, it seems quite obvious. Deck plans, interior arrangements and various parameters are very different."

In his career as designer, he has worked on crafts for all manner of races, including the Admiral's Cup and the America's Cup.

"For me, winning a race is combining a design with a team. It's absolutely pointless to have a very good design team on one side and a very good sailing team on the other side. It leads nowhere," he said.

Born in 1971, he grew up sailing Optimists. He studied naval architecture and in 1993 he earned a degree in Yacht and Small Craft Design in Southampton, England.

By 1995, he took part in his first America's Cup, with Le Défi Français. In 2003, Kouyoumdjian moved to Italy to join the Prada design team and then moved to the BMW Oracle Racing's design team.