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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.
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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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Staff
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Matt Judge
Designer / R&D Shop Manager
Matt Judge graduated from The Landing School in Kennebunkport, ME. He brings his past experience in fine woodworking and cabinet making as well as custom boat building to the team. Originally from the East Coast, Matt has raced on a variety of boats from beach catamarans to classic wooden 12 meters. When he isn’t sailing you can find him out on his longboard.
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Bobby Kleinschmit
Designer / Engineer
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
Designer / Engineer
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
Designer / 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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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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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 Orange County 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.
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