The Design Secrets America's Cup Teams Can't Share

What will actually decide winners and losers in America's Cup design? A technical deep dive with a designer who's free to say what the teams can't. Juan Kouyoumdjian is one of the world's top authorities on yacht design. He's spent 30 years designing winning round-the-world boats and working on America's Cup projects. Right now he isn't attached to a Cup team, so for once there's nothing stopping him talking. Niall Myant-Best asks him: • Which of the reused AC75 hulls has a head start, and which team faces an uphill battle? • Why the hull isn't a hull any more, but a fuselage built to make the sails work harder? • Where the real gains sit in foil deformation, and the new wording in the rule that more than one team will be trying to exploit? • How far you can push automated sail trim before the human in the loop becomes the limit? • The piece of technology he thinks would be decisive in Naples, that nobody appears to have built yet. SUBSCRIBE to the official America's Cup channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/americascup Follow America’s Cup on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americascup Like America’s Cup on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americascup Follow America’s Cup on X: https://x.com/americascup Stay up to date with the America’s Cup newsletter: https://www.americascup.com/en/newsletter The Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup will be defended in Naples in 2027 by five-time America's Cup winner, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron represented by their team, @EmiratesTeamNZ . #AmericasCup #AC38 #Naples2027