Morrelli & Melvin Team

Designers and Engineers of World Class Yachts and Commercial Vessels

We called a board meeting one Saturday at 9:00 am. We met at the north end of the Bolsa Chica parking lot and the waves were so sweet that not a word was spoken about the cool designs we were working on. After a couple of hours of catching waves and paddling hard to get back out for more, we went our separate ways. Pete went off to test a new rig for an A Cat, Bobby and Nat went to the warehouse to work on building their foiler moths and Dave went home to do some gardening.

The atmosphere is casual at Morrelli & Melvin. We have big screens on our desks and surfboards and spare spars stacked up in the corner. We can build anything and everything in our warehouse. It's loaded with A Cats, moths and revolutionary designs that we are working on in our spare time. We believe that the hands-on experience enables our team to not only design products that can be built efficiently and economically, but also leads to innovation in materials and construction methods.

Gino Morrelli

Designer / Partner

Gino started out working on racing cars and boats in his family's Southern California back yard as a teenager. He built his first boat with his dad and brother, a 33-foot Crowther trimaran in high school. Soon after he started his first company, Climax Catamarans, designing and building 18-square meter cats. He has been entrenched in onshore and offshore race-boat construction efforts since the early 80's, designing and managing  the construction of a French 60' ocean racing catamaran, multiple Formula 40's, the 1988 Stars & Stripes America's Cup catamaran, Bol D'or racers, Little America's Cup C-Class cats and many racing beach catamarans. Gino raced extensively on Stars and Stripes '88 with Dennis Connor and Steve Fossett's Morrell & Melvin designed PlayStation, setting Atlantic W-E, 24 hour, Round Britian/Ireland records, and many more.

Today Gino manages the Product Development side of our business where he helps bridge the gap between design and engineering and our  production clients or custom builders. His many years of experience in racing, design, as well as on the shop floor help us design boats that are beautiful, perform well, and are practical and economical to construct.

Pete Melvin

Designer / Engineer / Partner

Pete Melvin has been creating innovative vehicles since his youth.  Not discouraged when the boat he built as a 6-year old did not float, he rebounded and built a fast motorized skateboard by the time he was 10. Pete and his father designed and built several Optimist dinghies and then formed a company to build them. They used Nomex honeycomb and carbon fiber long before these materials gained acceptance in the marine industry. Pete has always designed, built, rigged, and prepared his own race boats, creating many innovations along the way and gaining valuable hands-on experience. He recently designed and built an innovative electric motorcycle that goes 50 miles on a single charge at up to 60 mph. His motorcycle is a test bed for lithium battery and electric propulsion systems that are increasingly finding their way onto M&M's commercial, military, and pleasure boat designs. 

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, keelboats, and multihulls of all sizes. He has won three World Championships, including the 1997 and 2005 A Class Catamaran World Championships. He was the US Tornado skipper at the Olympics in 1988. Pete set some speed records as a crew aboard the Morrelli & Melvin designedPlayStation.  He has been a crew member on five WSSRC sanctioned World Records.  Small or large, catamaran or trimaran, Pete is at home making them perform to their VPP's.

BS- Aerospace Engineering, Boston University