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Gino Morrelli
Designer / Partner
Gino
Morrelli began as a private boat builder and has been designing
multihulls since 1975. In 1988, he gained world-wide notoriety as a
leading member of America's Cup's Stars and Stripes design team. Gino's
designs include the 18M^2 Climax Catamarans, the 60' Region De Picardie
catamaran, and multiple Formula 40 shapes that the French adopted. He
has 12 sailing world and race records to his credit. Gino providing important consulting and guidance in the boat building joint ventures in South Africa, China and Mexico.
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Pete Melvin
Designer / Engineer / Partner
Pete
Melvin manages our design office and participates in all levels of the
design process. He is a graduate of Boston University with a degree in
Aerospace Engineering. Pete designed aircraft at McDonnell Douglas for
five years before forming Morrelli & Melvin in 1992. Pete has been
a champion sailboat racer since his youth and has won over 25 National
Championships in a wide variety of dinghies, keel boats, and multihulls
of all sizes. He has won three World Championships, including the 1997
and 2005 A Class Catamaran World Championships. He sailed in the
Olympics in 1988 in the Tornado catamaran class. Pete also sails on
larger multihulls such as the125' PlayStation, 60' trimarans, and
Reynolds 33's. He has been a crew member on five WSSRC sanctioned World
Records.
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Walter Altmann
Designer
Walter has a background in ship engineering. He has led engineering departments for ship builders as well as developed the construction specifics for commercial and private vessels. He is familiar with a variety of boat technologies. Walter has invaluable practical experience in the application of propulsion, power and on-board systems as well as an aesthetic-eye.
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Bobby Kleinschmit
Naval Architect
Bobby
Kleinschmit graduated from Webb Institute in 2006 with a Bachelor of
Science degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. His
interests include velocity prediction programs, performance
optimization, propellers and composite structures. He previously
interned at Pedrick Yacht Designs, Antrim Associates, Tiara Yachts, and
has worked aboard a petroleum product tanker and a classic charter
motoryacht. An active member of the Webb Sailing Team, he raced on
larger boats on the Great Lakes and Long Island Sound. Since moving to
Southern California, he has been actively racing Formula 18 catamarans,
Reynolds 33s, and offshore monohulls.
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Jeremy Laundergan
Askland Engineering (Consultant)
Jeremy
Laundergan has worked with Morrelli and Melvin on various projects over
the last ten years. Jeremy is a USCG licensed captain and has a Masters
of Science in Engineering from California State University, Long Beach.
Jeremy worked at Boeing Space Systems Composite Development from
1996-2000.
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Julia Lillis
Naval Architect
Julia
Lillis graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in Naval
Architecture. While at the Academy she was an active member of the
dinghy sailing team, racing Lasers, 420s and FJs. She got her first
taste of big boats when she made a trans-Atlantic cruise onboard the
62’ American Promise. After graduation, she attended The Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where she earned an M.S. in
Mechanical Engineering. She was stationed in San Diego onboard a Guided
Missile Destroyer and went on one deployment to the Northern Arabian
Gulf. When she’s not designing catamarans at Morrelli & Melvin, she
can be seen telling jokes on stage at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.
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David McCollough
Senior Design Engineer
David McCollough graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX
with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He then spent several years
working as computer programmer for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM
before pursing a career in yacht design. David received his formal
design training from The Landing School in Kennebunkport, ME. He then
worked for Waterplane Design on several exciting multihull and monohull
projects. In his free time David enjoys racing on high-performance
sailboats, snowboarding, and mountain biking.
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Kathy Melvin
Financial Analyst/Employee Benefits Administrator
Kathy brings many years of experience working at aerospace manufacturing companies in production engineering. She has a Batchelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and a Masters of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Kathy helps us manage our finances, evaluates new business opportunities, and manages our employee benefits plans.
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Warren Muir
Designer / Boatbuilder
Warren Muir is originally from Sydney, Australia, where he learned his
boatbuilding and yacht design through an apprenticeship at the Sydney
Technical College. He has been active in the yachting industry most of
his working life, building and designing all types of vessels from
sailing dinghy’s to Superyachts, from keel to masthead and everything
in between Warren’s sailing experience includes regattas in many parts
of the world on anything with a racing number that could float. Warren
designed a series of international 5.5 meter racing yachts in the
1980’s which won 3 world championships and four Scandinavian Gold Cup
competitions. His yacht design portfolio includes works which have been
built in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and at Melges Boatworks in
Wisconsin. Always in love with sailing, he gets out on the water
whenever he can, but lets the younger pups of the team participate in
the serious yacht racing.
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Nat Shaver
Design Engineer
Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Nat grew up racing sailboats on Buzzard’s Bay. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California in Irvine, and interning at Morrelli and Melvin during his senior year, Nat came on to work full time. He has also taught sailing and worked on autonomous underwater vehicles for scientific research. Nat is particularly interested in the design of appendages and composite structures and performance optimization. He enjoys sailing a variety of boats competitively, including International 14’s, Formula 18 catamarans, and Farr 40’s.
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Sean Tannous
Design Engineer
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Tonya Soltani
Office Manager
Tonya Sullivan Soltani graduated from Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She brings over 30 years experience in executive administration and bookkeeping. Tonya and her husband Majid recently relocated to Long Beach from Beaufort, South Carolina, where they enjoyed their boating experiences on a 20’ pontoon, custom rebuilt by Majid. In addition to boating, Tonya is an avid Blue’s enthusiast and enjoys reading, camping and the great outdoors!
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