Partners
The data of the first Extreme H2O, a decade of foiling knowledge from America’s Cup designers, and the yard that builds Cup challengers. All combined in one yacht.
Newport Beach, California
Naval architecture & engineering
Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin are among the most successful multihull designers in the world, with America’s Cup yachts and many of the fastest racing catamarans to their name.
They rebuilt the original Extreme H2O, coined the project’s guiding rule, “fat birds don’t fly,” and drew PB72 from a clean sheet: hull lines, rig, foils, structure and the general arrangement.
Naval architecture
Ferdinand van West
Lead designer
Ferdinand van West led PB72’s design during his twelve years at Morrelli & Melvin, and has been part of the boat from the first simulations to her sea trials. Through his own practice he now designs foiling and high-performance vessels, including for the America’s Cup.
His story
Bergamo, Italy
Builder
Persico Marine are composite specialists and builders of America’s Cup challengers, including Luna Rossa. They built PB72’s carbon structure from dedicated molds that remain at the yard.
Build journal
Auckland, New Zealand
Mast & rig
Southern Spars build carbon rigs for America’s Cup yachts, offshore racers and superyachts. They designed and built PB72’s high-aspect rig around her 32-metre carbon rotating wing mast.
Rig specifications
Auckland, New Zealand
Flight-control engineering
Engineers from the team behind back-to-back America’s Cup victories designed PB72’s flight-control system and its simulation. The boat is built to support it, and they will program it once sea trials provide the full data, letting her manage the foil and rudder T-foils continuously.
Foils & flight control
Ventura, California · Channel Islands loft
Sails
The world’s leading sailmaker designed and built PB72’s sail plan, and worked with Morrelli & Melvin on the interactive simulation that “sailed” her before she was built.
Sail plan
Pensacola, Florida
Commissioning & sea trials
The New York Yacht Club’s America’s Cup team are among the most experienced professionals in the world on high-speed foiling platforms. They are working with Ferdinand van West on PB72’s commissioning and sea trials.
Foils & flight controlCo-founder, Morrelli & Melvin
BS Aerospace Engineering, Boston University
“Small or large, catamaran or trimaran, Pete is at home making them perform to their VPPs.”
Pete Melvin has been creating innovative vehicles since his youth. Undeterred when the boat he built at six did not float, he had built a fast motorised skateboard by ten. With his father he designed and built Optimist dinghies, then formed a company to build them, using Nomex honeycomb and carbon fibre long before those materials were accepted in the marine industry. He has always designed, built, rigged and prepared his own race boats, and recently built an electric motorcycle as a test bed for the lithium battery and electric propulsion systems now finding their way into Morrelli & Melvin’s designs.
An aerospace engineer, Pete designed aircraft at McDonnell Douglas for five years before founding Morrelli & Melvin in 1992, where he manages the design office and works at every level of the design process. He was at the dinner in Sarasota where PB72 began.
He is also a champion sailor: more than 25 national championships across dinghies, keelboats and multihulls, three world championships including the 1997 and 2005 A Class Catamaran Worlds, US Tornado skipper at the 1988 Olympics, and crew on five WSSRC-sanctioned world speed records, including aboard the Morrelli & Melvin designed PlayStation.
Lead designer
Van West Naval Architecture
“The yacht is really living up to expectations: smooth ride, stable foiling, and speeds fully in line with our simulation predictions. Even in freezing temperatures she was comfortably holding a steady 34 knots, both hulls just skimming the water with virtually no heel with the RMFoil deployed.”
Ferdinand van West is a naval architect specialising in high-performance sailing yachts, hydrofoils and advanced marine vehicles, and a two-time Formula 18 World Champion. He combines top-level competitive sailing with simulation-driven design, bringing hydrodynamics, structures and control systems together, and tests on the water to link design directly to real-world performance.
Over twelve years at Morrelli & Melvin he was lead designer on the Nacra range, the SuperFoiler, the TF10, the Rapido range and PB72. He was at the dinner in Sarasota where Pat, Pete Melvin and he agreed to start again from a clean sheet, and has been part of the boat ever since, from the first simulations to her sea trials. He was also a lead foil designer for the American Magic America’s Cup challenge, played a key role in developing the Olympic Nacra 17, and holds an MSc in Maritime Engineering from the University of Southampton.
Through his own practice, Van West Naval Architecture, he now designs and consults on high-performance and next-generation marine vehicles, including work for a 38th America’s Cup team and a foiling ferry.
Project manager & owner’s representative
Watch captain, Rosebud · 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner
“Working on this project has been an extraordinary journey, seamlessly blending cutting-edge technology with groundbreaking design. This vessel represents a new benchmark in sailing performance.”
Malcolm Park is a professional ocean racer, skipper and composites specialist. He was watch captain on Roger Sturgeon’s Rosebud when she won the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart overall, taking the Tattersall’s Cup, and raced aboard her in the 2007 Transpac. He has sailed fifteen Transpacs in all, including as watch captain and tactician on Taxi Dancer in the 50th race in 2019.
He has been at Pat’s side through both Extreme H2O boats. On the original Extreme H2O he negotiated her release from a bankrupt yard in South Africa, moved her to the coast by truck in the middle of the night and saw her shipped to California, then sailed aboard as a watch captain in the 2015 Transpac.
For PB72 he served as project manager and owner’s representative, providing the technical and logistical expertise to coordinate a team spread across three continents, from the designers in California to the builders in Italy and the sea trials in Florida.
Lead sailor
North Sails Channel Islands, Ventura, California
“I’m going to nudge it up to 32 knots or so, and it went 30, 31, 32, 38. There’s so much potential in the boat.”
Kevin Miller is a sailmaker and offshore sailor, and PB72’s lead sailor. He planned and designed her sail plan and has driven her through her sea trials, including the run where she went from 32 to 38 knots “just in a heartbeat”. As he puts it, the people who have sailed aboard, very experienced people, “are just blown away at what the boat does”.
Offshore, his record speaks for itself: three overall wins and six class wins in the Transpac, four overall wins in the Newport to Cabo San Lucas race, two Puerto Vallarta Race wins, and a Newport Bermuda Race victory. He was sailing master and skipper for the classic yacht Dorade’s return to ocean racing.
“With the help of Team New Zealand engineers, they began helping us to design a flight control system.”
Partnership
PB72 is an engineering story and an ocean-racing story, with the world’s most-watched offshore courses and Transpac 2027 within reach. The partners who join now help decide where she races first.
We work with a small number of partners across technology, materials, marine equipment and premium brands. Partnerships can include branding on sails and hull, content rights from onboard cameras, drone and documentary filming, hospitality days aboard and at the team base, and integration at events.
Seen on the world’s
great courses
Private enquiries
PB72 is in sea trials. Partnerships, racing programs, experiences and charter are discussed personally with our team.
Extreme H2O · Foiling ocean catamaran · Technical specification
Morrelli & Melvin · GA PB72_001 Rev A · Persico Marine build spec
Velocity prediction program, partially validated in sea trials.
Figures from the Morrelli & Melvin general arrangement (PB72_001, Rev A, August 2022) and the Persico Marine build specification. Displacements are approximate as-built figures from Ferdinand van West (2026); righting moments are design estimates; performance figures are VPP predictions, calculated at the 20,280 kg design racing displacement.
Every cell is a predicted boat speed from the velocity prediction program. The circled cells are the targets PB72 has already hit in her first sea trials, with the foils still trimmed by hand. Each one came in on target.
| Wind angleTrue wind (kn) | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45° | 7.6 | 8.4 | 9.1 | 9.8 | 10.4 | 11.3 | 12.6 | 13.6 | 14.4 | 15.1 | 16.0 | 17.4 | 20.5 | 23.4 | 24.0 | 23.7 |
| 50° | 8.0 | 8.9 | 9.7 | 10.5 | 11.2 | 12.8 | 14.3 | 15.1 | 16.3 | 17.6 | 19.5 | 21.6 | 27.1 | 27.5 | 27.0 | 26.5 |
| 55° | 8.4 | 9.3 | 10.2 | 11.2 | 12.2 | 14.2 | 15.7 | 17.0 | 18.8 | 20.8 | 23.4 | 27.6 | 30.1 | 30.2 | 29.5 | 28.9 |
| 60° | 8.8 | 9.7 | 10.7 | 11.8 | 13.2 | 15.3 | 17.1 | 19.3 | 21.5 | 26.1 | 28.6 | 30.2 | 32.4 | 32.3 | 31.6 | 30.9 |
| 65° | 9.1 | 10.1 | 11.2 | 12.3 | 14.3 | 16.4 | 19.1 | 21.5 | 26.1 | 29.0 | 30.8 | 32.2 | 34.3 | 34.2 | 33.4 | 32.4 |
| 70° | 9.3 | 10.4 | 11.5 | 12.7 | 14.9 | 17.9 | 20.9 | 24.1 | 28.6 | 30.8 | 32.4 | 33.8 | 35.8 | 35.7 | 34.8 | 32.3 |
| 75° | 9.5 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 13.1 | 15.4 | 19.4 | 22.6 | 27.3 | 30.2 | 32.2 | 33.7 | 35.1 | 37.1 | 37.1 | 36.2 | 34.0 |
| 80° | 9.7 | 11.0 | 12.3 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 20.6 | 25.1 | 28.7 | 31.4 | 33.2 | 34.7 | 36.1 | 38.1 | 38.2 | 37.3 | 36.2 |
| 85° | 9.8 | 11.2 | 12.6 | 14.2 | 16.2 | 21.3 | 26.9 | 29.8 | 32.2 | 34.0 | 35.5 | 36.9 | 39.0 | 39.1 | 38.3 | 37.5 |
| 90° | 9.9 | 11.3 | 12.7 | 14.4 | 16.4 | 21.5 | 27.7 | 31.5 | 33.5 | 35.1 | 36.3 | 37.5 | 39.6 | 39.8 | 39.1 | 38.7 |
| 95° | 9.9 | 11.3 | 12.8 | 14.4 | 16.5 | 21.0 | 28.7 | 31.7 | 33.9 | 35.5 | 36.8 | 37.9 | 40.0 | 40.3 | 39.8 | 39.5 |
| 100° | 9.9 | 11.3 | 12.7 | 14.2 | 16.3 | 22.3 | 28.8 | 31.7 | 34.2 | 35.8 | 37.0 | 38.1 | 40.3 | 40.6 | 40.3 | 40.0 |
| 105° | 9.8 | 11.1 | 12.5 | 14.0 | 15.7 | 21.0 | 28.3 | 31.4 | 34.0 | 35.8 | 37.1 | 38.2 | 40.3 | 40.7 | 40.5 | 40.3 |
| 110° | 9.7 | 10.9 | 12.2 | 13.6 | 15.1 | 17.7 | 26.8 | 31.0 | 33.3 | 35.5 | 37.0 | 38.2 | 40.2 | 40.7 | 40.6 | 40.4 |
| 115° | 9.5 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 13.1 | 14.5 | 16.5 | 19.9 | 30.0 | 32.6 | 34.8 | 36.6 | 37.9 | 40.0 | 40.3 | 40.4 | 40.1 |
| 120° | 9.2 | 10.3 | 11.4 | 12.5 | 13.7 | 14.9 | 17.4 | 25.8 | 31.8 | 34.0 | 35.6 | 37.4 | 39.6 | 40.0 | 40.0 | 39.6 |
| 125° | 8.9 | 9.9 | 10.8 | 11.6 | 12.4 | 13.5 | 14.7 | 16.3 | 29.7 | 32.9 | 34.9 | 36.4 | 39.0 | 39.6 | 39.6 | 39.1 |
| 130° | 8.5 | 9.4 | 10.0 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 15.5 | 17.1 | 18.0 | 33.4 | 35.4 | 38.1 | 38.9 | 39.1 | 38.6 |
| 135° | 8.2 | 8.7 | 9.5 | 10.5 | 11.5 | 12.6 | 13.7 | 14.8 | 16.2 | 17.3 | 18.4 | 20.0 | 37.0 | 38.0 | 38.2 | 37.7 |
| 140° | 7.6 | 8.2 | 9.1 | 9.9 | 10.9 | 11.9 | 12.9 | 14.0 | 15.2 | 16.4 | 17.7 | 19.1 | 22.1 | 35.4 | 30.7 | 35.0 |
Predicted speeds from the velocity prediction program. Sea-trial targets achieved with manual foil trim; the automatic flight-control system comes online after calibration.
Every circled target was reached with the boat about 1.2 tonnes heavier than the weight the predictions assume.
Thank you
Thank you for your interest in Extreme H2O. A member of the team will contact you shortly.