It has been rumored since quite some time that the first Artemis AC72 yacht was lagging in terms of speed, so Paul Cayard’s statement doesn’t come as a surprise. It seems that Juan Kouyoumdjian can design the fastest Volvo Ocean Race boats and win three consecutive editions of the round-the-world race but definitely was off pace it in the brand new world of America’s Cup catamarans.
It’s a bit of an irony though. A few years ago, in 2005 or 2006, Kouyoumdjian was complaining that an America’s Cup raced on the old, slow ACC boats was similar to racing Formula 1 with farm tractors. Now that he had the chance to design an exciting Ferrari or Lamborghini his computers came out with a tractor… Hopefully, the modifications Iain Percy is referring to will transform the tractor into a racing machine.
As for the team’s second AC72, our spies in Alameda claim that she will fly from Valencia to San Francisco on a pair of Antonov cargo planes. Instead of Valencia’s port we will now have to keep a close eye on its airport.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:20 am
Again, nothing is done in the Cup without rus-ukr jets
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:50 am
wooof wooof, will the swede come back for more after this debacle? Rather get the shit kicked out of me in F1 at that price
February 22nd, 2013 at 7:55 pm
what does the designer say? He has always the mouth wide open to criticise the other boats.
February 23rd, 2013 at 1:59 pm
The first Artemes boat is a disaster and it will be very difficult for them to get anything out of that boat more design and money spent there is another example of wasting money and poor Managment , they better concentrate on the 2nd boat also sound´s like a great idea flying the boat over from valencia , what´s that cost , good luck !
April 13th, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Juan K is not famous for his multihulls. lol. The choice of this designer was very curious. Althought, the boat looks good to me.