Ken Freivokh Design
| Founder | Ken Freivokh, born in Los Angeles to a French father and Chilean mother |
|---|---|
| Trained in architecture and engineering in Lima, Peru, then completed a Master's in Design (Engineering) at the Royal College of Art, London, graduating 1972 | |
| No confirmed founding year for the practice; the studio moved into its purpose built building on the River Hamble, Universal Marina, Hampshire, in January 2009 | |
| Scope of work | yacht exterior and interior design, architecture, residential interiors, private jets, industrial design |
| Long exclusive design contract with production builder Sunseeker; the length is reported inconsistently as 10, 13 or over 14 years across three separate sources | |
| Also designed for Azimut's Magellano range and Fairline's Squadron range | |
| Freivokh co-owns tender builder Pascoe International with his wife Liz | |
| No Wikipedia page exists for Ken Freivokh personally; Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl each have their own Wikipedia pages that credit him only partially | |
One Studio, Two Famous Sailing Yachts
Ken Freivokh was born in Los Angeles to a French father and a Chilean mother, and trained first in architecture and engineering in Lima, Peru, before completing a Master's in Design (Engineering) at London's Royal College of Art in 1972. He worked as an architect and industrial designer in London, and his move into yacht design began almost by accident, when he designed a custom Quarter Tonner racing sailboat for himself and the result led Hunter Boats to commission a full range from him. That production relationship, designing boats other people would actually buy off a line rather than commission one at a time, has stayed the quieter, steadier half of his career ever since.
The practice today is described only as a multi disciplinary team, with no published headcount or organisation chart, working out of a purpose built studio on the River Hamble at Universal Marina in Hampshire, which it moved into in January 2009. That date is a relocation, not a founding, and no source gives a confirmed year for when Freivokh actually started the practice. Its scope runs wider than yachts alone: architecture, residential interiors, private jet cabins and industrial design all sit inside the same small studio, alongside two sailing superyachts that made its name.
Maltese Falcon: Interior Confirmed, Exterior Credit Disputed
Maltese Falcon is an 88 metre, three masted sailing yacht built by Perini Navi at the Yildiz shipyard in Tuzla, Istanbul, and completed in February 2006 for the venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who owned her until 2008 before she passed to Pleon Ltd for charter. Her signature is the DynaRig: three self standing, rotating carbon fibre masts, each carrying six yards and together setting fifteen square sails with no stays or shrouds at all. The rig furls into the mast and can reportedly deploy in around six minutes, and a fibre optic strain monitoring system, developed by Damon Roberts of Insensys and embedded in the carbon spars during construction, reads the load on the rig in real time.
Wikipedia's own account splits the credit three ways: Dykstra Naval Architects for the exterior and naval design, Freivokh for the interior decoration, and Insensys for the DynaRig engineering. Freivokh's own telling, in an Abeking & Rasmussen studio profile, is that Perkins gave him a free hand to design the whole yacht inside and out, and most yacht press repeats that broader framing without acknowledging Dykstra's separate exterior credit. Freivokh himself does not claim to have engineered the rig; in a 2026 Barche Magazine interview he credits naval architect Gerry Dykstra with introducing the DynaRig to luxury yachting, and traces the concept itself back to a 1960s German proposal for commercial sailing cargo ships, a claim this research could not independently corroborate from a second source.
Wikipedia credits Maltese Falcon's exterior to Dykstra Naval Architects and Black Pearl's design to four people together. Trade press routinely gives one name the whole yacht.
Black Pearl: a Four Way Design Credit
Black Pearl is a 106.7 metre Oceanco sailing yacht, launched in September 2016 and delivered in early 2018, carrying a larger version of the same DynaRig idea: three masts, six yards each, fifteen square sails and roughly 2,900 square metres of sail area, enough to reach around 30 knots under sail. She won Sailing Superyacht of the Year in 2019, and remains one of the largest and most technically ambitious sailing yachts ever built.
Where PR aimed material tends to describe Freivokh as responsible for the exterior lines and interiors of both Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl, Wikipedia's more granular account credits Black Pearl's overall design to four people jointly, with Freivokh's own role specifically as styling and design, and interior leadership on the project separately attributed elsewhere to Valentina Zannier of Nuvolari Lenard. A buyer citing this studio's work on Black Pearl should specify which scope is meant. Nobody at Ken Freivokh Design engineered the rig on either yacht; that credit belongs to Dykstra and, on Maltese Falcon, to Insensys.
Dream Symphony: the Schooner That Has Not Sold
Keel laid in 2011, Dream Symphony is built from epoxy laminated iroko and is described by Boat International and by brokerage Burgess as what would be the largest all wood sailing yacht in the world. Freivokh's role was interior design, working alongside Dykstra on a rig and hull that, in his own words to Boat International, started from a brief for a very traditional schooner while the interior went a different way entirely.
The honest, independently reported part of the story is that the project stalled. As of Boat International's most recent detailed report, the hull was pretty much complete but the yard was running on a skeleton maintenance crew while Burgess sought a new owner to fund completion. A directory listing since seen shows a placeholder delivery estimate of 2027, which reads as an assumption rather than a confirmed date, and this research found no 2024 to 2026 news of a sale or of construction resuming. It is the clearest independent evidence available of how this studio's work has fared commercially outside its two famous flagships.
The Steadier Business: Sunseeker and Tenders
The Sunseeker relationship is the part of this studio's work an actual buyer can walk onto today rather than admire from a distance. Three separate sources give three different lengths for the exclusive contract, ten years, thirteen years and over fourteen years, and this research could not settle which is correct; what is consistent is that it covered multiple models including the Portofino 40, and that it ran for a genuinely long time by design industry standards. He has also designed for Azimut's Magellano long range motor yacht line and Fairline's Squadron range, production work that sits well outside the one off spectacle of Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl.
Away from yachts, Freivokh has designed cabin interiors for the Bombardier Global Express and Global 5000 private jets, a Tom Perkins penthouse on the 60th floor of a San Francisco tower, a Chelsea residence in London, and, by his own account in a Barche Magazine interview, customised Harley Davidson motorcycles. He co owns tender builder Pascoe International with his wife Liz, reported in the same interview to have produced more than 270 vessels, a figure this research could not independently verify against a second source.
What Is Not Settled About This Studio
Ken Freivokh Design's own news page carries nothing after 2014, which is either a website nobody maintains or a studio that simply does not publicise its current workload; either way, it means a buyer cannot verify recent or ongoing projects from the studio's own site. Against that, a 2026 Barche Magazine interview has Freivokh discussing undisclosed revolutionary projects and continuing to talk about the business in the present tense, so the practice appears to remain active even though its own web presence does not show it. No independent source gives a headcount, an org structure, or a current project roster.
This research found no substantive independent design criticism of Maltese Falcon or Black Pearl, no sea trial complaints, no on the record owner or crew commentary beyond PR aimed profiles and award coverage; a Maltese Falcon discussion thread exists on YachtForums but sits behind a login wall this research could not pass. The honest gaps are the founding date, the exact Sunseeker contract length, the precise design credit split on both flagship yachts, and Dream Symphony's current buyer status. A buyer should verify all four directly with the studio before commissioning or citing its work. The 2026 Barche Magazine interview also has him describing his own working method in terms that read as a design philosophy rather than a slogan: a designer's job, in his words to SuperyachtNews, involves finding a balance between visionary solutions and practicality, which is a fair description of a career spent alternating between two headline sailing yachts and a decade of quieter production work for Sunseeker.
Practical detail
| Design fee | Not published by the studio in any source found. The industry norm for concept through delivery yacht design is a percentage of build cost, typically in the low single digits, but no Freivokh specific figure exists publicly. |
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| How credit actually splits | On both DynaRig flagships, exterior and naval work sits with Dykstra Naval Architects and rig engineering with Insensys, credited to Damon Roberts. Freivokh's confirmed scope is the interior on Maltese Falcon and a shared styling and design credit, alongside Gerard Villate, Nigel Gee and Nuvolari Lenard, on Black Pearl. |
| Getting a straight answer | The studio's own news page has not been updated since 2014. Verify current team size, project roster and availability by direct enquiry rather than from the website. |
| Where the production work actually is | An exclusive, multi year design contract with Sunseeker, plus work for Azimut's Magellano range and Fairline's Squadron range, are the yachts a buyer can order today, distinct from the two famous one off sailing yachts. |
| What is NOT published | The practice's founding year, its current headcount, the exact length of the Sunseeker contract, a confirmed current project list, and Dream Symphony's sale status or asking price. |
What owners and crew report
No independent owner or crew commentary exists on the two flagship yachts
Public commentary on Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl comes overwhelmingly from PR toned profiles, awards coverage and the designer's own interviews; a Maltese Falcon discussion thread exists on YachtForums but sits behind a login wall, and this research found no on the record quote from a private owner or a named captain describing how either yacht actually handles or lives.
Yotters research deskThe clearest independent report on the studio's work is commercial trouble, not a design review
Boat International and brokerage Burgess, who is marketing the yacht, both report that Dream Symphony's hull sat essentially complete while the build stalled for want of a buyer to fund completion, with the yard running on a skeleton maintenance crew as of the last detailed public update.
Boat International
What is good, and what to watch
Strong points
- Attached to two of the most technically significant sailing yachts built this centuryMaltese Falcon and Black Pearl both used the freestanding DynaRig, and Freivokh has a confirmed, sourced credit on each, interior decoration on the first and a shared styling and design credit on the second.
- A real, long production relationship, not just one off spectacleAn exclusive Sunseeker design contract running a decade or more, plus Azimut Magellano and Fairline Squadron work, means this studio's drawings are on production line yachts a buyer can actually order today, not only on two famous show pieces.
- The founder speaks candidly rather than only through PRIn a 2026 Barche Magazine interview Freivokh discusses AI's likely role in design and credits naval architect Gerry Dykstra with the DynaRig's introduction to yachting rather than claiming personal invention of the rig.
What to watch
- The studio's own credit on its two flagship yachts is genuinely disputedWikipedia splits Maltese Falcon's design between Dykstra Naval Architects for the exterior and Freivokh for the interior only, and credits Black Pearl to four people jointly, while most trade press simplifies this into a solo Freivokh credit; a buyer citing this studio's work should specify which scope is actually meant.
- No confirmed founding year, no published headcountNothing found gives a founding year for the practice, only the January 2009 date the studio moved into its current Hamble river building; its actual size and current project list are not public anywhere.
- One flagship project has sat unsold for over a decadeDream Symphony, the 141 metre schooner Freivokh designed the interior for, has been under construction at Dream Ship Victory since 2011 with no confirmed buyer as of 2026, per Boat International's own reporting and Burgess's brokerage listing.
Who it is for: A buyer who wants the specific, confirmed Freivokh credit, an interior on a category defining DynaRig sailing yacht, or a Sunseeker built to his production line drawings, rather than someone assuming his name alone covers a whole yacht's naval architecture and rig engineering, which on both famous projects belonged to other named firms.