What is the boat you have designed that you are most proud of?
I am proud of many projects, but particularly proud of 2 projects in the racing world. The America's Cup boats for Oracle in 2007. These are boats that have proven to be very fast.
The ABN Amro Volvo 70 was the first ocean racing boat we made and it was a huge success. It won the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race, followed by the ABN Amro II.
There is also another very important project that makes me particularly proud. It's a 125-foot sailboat, the Club Swan 125, named Scorpio. It took us 4 years to design and build it. It is an extraordinary boat. It has just been launched and is really impressive.
What boat would you have liked to draw?
I think I would go back to the days of Nathanael Herreshoff, an American naval architect of the late 19th century. He built an extremely fast and innovative 38-foot sailboat for its time. In the same genre, he designed Reliance, a huge sailboat born at the beginning of the 20th century and winner of the 1903 America's Cup. It made history. At that time, the history of the America's Cup was interesting. There was no class, no limits. The boats were so big that they reached the limit of what could be done at that time.
What is the project you would like to work on?
The America's Cup is always an extraordinary challenge! I've done 6 and never won one. We were close though. I don't want to leave this planet without winning or being involved in a Cup challenge again.
I had three dreams to realize: the Olympic Games, the round-the-world race and the America's Cup. We won the first two times, once in 2008 in a Star designed for an English crew and in Rio in 2016 in a Finn. We have won two Volvo Ocean Races, so I only need the America's Cup.
The Cup has had several phases. The class of boats we use today are neither multihulls nor monohulls, even if they are closer. They are a kind of monohulls. The Cup represents such a great challenge that it is independent of the type of boats involved. It's the event itself that attracts me more than the type of boat.
