The Story · The original Extreme H2O
Rescued, rebuilt,
first to finish
Before PB72 there was a half-built Gunboat 66, a warehouse in South Africa and a midnight escape to the sea.
South Africa
A boat
held to ransom
Pat bought a Gunboat 66 while she was still being built in South Africa. Then, in 2014, Gunboat went bankrupt with the boat only half finished.
The unpaid workforce was still owed wages, and the owners of the warehouse were holding the boat as ransom. It took almost a year of negotiation before Malcolm Park, acting for Pat, could pay them off. Then he loaded the hull onto a trailer and drove it fifty miles to another harbour in the middle of the night.
From there she was shipped via Rotterdam and the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California, then trucked down the 405 at two in the morning to a small boatyard in Costa Mesa, close to Morrelli & Melvin, the Gunboat 66’s original designers.
“The people that owned the warehouse were holding that boat ransom.”
The rebuild
Morrelli & Melvin
take a look
When Morrelli & Melvin examined the boat they found the hull laminates were faulty, and reinforced the structure throughout. She had no daggerboards or mast yet, so Pat seized the chance to make big changes: a tall wing mast, and a large C-foil in place of a straight daggerboard. Then came what Pat calls “heated arguments” about how powerful to make her.
It was during the rebuild that Gino Morrelli told him: “Pat, fat birds don’t fly.” At speed her C-foil lifted about 30% of her weight. She sailed at 23 to 25 knots fairly easily, with a measured top speed of 31: the fastest cat of her time, Pat says. And she stayed comfortable, with a full galley, hot showers, real beds, an automatic espresso machine and air-conditioning. In the 2015 race Pat didn’t sail her: he was aboard as the cook, which he loves, and the crew loved his cooking.
2015
A season
of firsts
- Newport to Cabo
- 1st
- First multihull to finish
- Transpac
- 1st
- First multihull to finish
- Trophy
- Rudy Choy
- Fastest multihull
- Top speed
- 31 kn
- C-foil lifting ~30% of her weight
Racing in 2015
“We were the first multihull to finish… I won the Rudy Choy Trophy that year.”
2024 – 2025 · as Gaetana
Still
winning
After Pat sold her, the original Extreme H2O was simply renamed Gaetana. Today she races for Riccardo Pavoncelli with the same C-foil and the same wing mast, and ten years after her Transpac she is still beating other catamarans.
- Sept 2024Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Porto CervoMultihull class winner, both races won on corrected time, at the event that also hosted the first Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship
- May 2025IMA Tre Golfi Multihull Trophy, Gulf of NaplesWon all five races of the inaugural trophy
If a decade-old design whose foil carried about 30% of her weight is still winning, imagine what a boat designed from the start to fly can do. PB72’s foil can lift the entire yacht.
What came next
Nothing left
to learn
“It’s the fastest boat,” Pat said when he sold her. “There’s nothing left to learn.”
She also showed Pat the limits of asking one board to do two jobs. Her single C-foil had to be both the daggerboard and the lifting foil, handling leeway and lift at once: it was slightly slower than a straight board below 12 knots of boat speed, worked well from 13 to 22, and at 23 to 25 knots it carried about 30% of her weight. Any faster, and it pulled the boat to windward and made her hard to helm.
The data from the original Extreme H2O became the starting point for PB72: every polar, every load, every lesson about foils carrying part of the boat.
Why PB72 has two foilsPat’s own accountPrivate 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
PB72 specifications
Morrelli & Melvin · GA PB72_001 Rev A · Persico Marine build spec
- Length overall
- 21.95 m
- 72.0 ft
- Beam
- 9.50 m
- 31.2 ft
- Racing displacement
- ≈ 21.5 t
- As built · VPP targets at 20.3 t
- Mast
- 32.33 m
- Air draft 37 m
- Upwind sail area
- 420 m²
- Main 224 + J1 196
- Fastest upwind
- J3 + main
- Full main 224 + J3 115 m²
- Fastest downwind
- MHO + main
- Full main 224 + MHO 358 m²
- Predicted top speed
- 40+ kn
- VPP
Principal dimensions
- Length overall
- 21.95 m72.0 ft
- Length incl. longeron
- 24.10 m79.1 ft
- Length waterline
- 21.45 m70.4 ft
- Beam overall
- 9.50 m31.2 ft
- Hull centreline spacing
- 7.52 m24.7 ft
- Freeboard
- 2.07 m6.8 ft
- Draft, boards down
- 5.31 m17.4 ft
- Draft, foils raised
- 0.65 m2.1 ft
- Air draft
- 37.00 m121.4 ft
Displacement & stability
- Light displacement
- ≈ 21,000 kgAs built · design 20,500 kg
- Racing displacement
- ≈ 21,500 kgAs built · as sailed in sea trials
- VPP target displacement
- 20,280 kgDesign racing weight used for the polar targets
- Design displacement (mLDC)
- 23,047 kgMaximum load condition
- Max total load (ISO 8666)
- 22,518 kg
- Steady-state sailing RM
- 830 kNmAt full-payload displacement
- Max dynamic RM
- 1,340 kNmRace mode, RMFoil deployed
Rig
- Mast tube length
- 32.33 m106.1 ft
- Mast design rake
- 4°
- P
- 31.285 mReefs: 26.604 · 21.970 · 14.190 m
- E
- 9.678 m
- I (1 · 2 · 3)
- 33.470 · 32.775 · 30.900 m
- I headstay (5 · 6)
- 28.050 · 25.720 m
- J (1 · 2 · 3)
- 12.180 · 11.730 · 10.980 m
- J headstay (5 · 6)
- 8.744 · 8.072 m
- BAD · HBI
- 1.906 · 2.019 m
Sail areas
- Mainsail, full
- 224 m²Reefs: 183 · 144 · 76.8 m²
- J0
- 219 m²
- J1
- 196 m²
- J3
- 115 m²
- J4 / staysail
- 87.3 m²
- FRO
- 304 m²
- MHO
- 358 m²
- A1
- 365 m²
- Fastest upwind setup
- J3 + full mainJ1 in marginal upwind conditions, 13–14 kn: partial foiling
- Fastest downwind setup
- MHO + full main
Foils & flight control
- Righting-moment foil
- ≈ 16 × 3 ftCurved carbon foil in a hydraulically raked case
- Daggerboards
- Centreline, per hullIndependent of the lifting foil
- Rudders
- Raking, T-foilConical titanium bearings · ≈ 6 ft T-foils
- Flight control
- Designed for fly-by-wireFoil lift and rudder-elevator control; programmed after sea trials
Construction & class
- Hull
- Carbon fibreFoam & Nomex sandwich
- Superstructure
- Carbon fibreFoam & Nomex sandwich
- Classification
- ISO 12215-7 Cat. ASER1 multihull · highest category, sport boat
- Propulsion
- 2 × 35 kW electricTorqeedo
Rig & deck hardware
- Mast
- Carbon rotating wing mastSupplied by SSNZ · single spreader, double diamond, running backstays
- Primary winches
- 4 × Harken 1125.3
- Secondary winches
- 2 × Harken 65.3 ST
- Windlass
- Lewmar V6 hydraulic
Propulsion & power
- Main engines
- 2 × Torqeedo electric25 kW continuous · 35 kW max each
- Drive
- Shaft driveStrut and P-bracket · Gori GP20 folding propellers
- Motoring speed
- 9.2 kn max7.5 kn cruise (estimated)
- Generators
- 2 × 20 kW Fischer Panda
- Propulsion battery
- 40 kWh lithium-ionBMW i3 cells
- Solar
- 2 kWPanels on the coachroof
- Electrical
- 120 V and 240 V AC400 V DC charging & hydraulic bus · 24 V domestic · Empirbus digital switching
Tankage
- Fuel
- 2 × 550 L
- Fresh water
- 2 × 450 LPlus 70 L drinking water
- Watermaker
- Schenker Modular Zen 50
- Black water
- 2 × 220 L
Comfort & systems
- Air conditioning
- 64,000 BTU/hTermodinamica
- Galley
- Gaggenau hobsPizza oven · Miele microwave · Miele coffee machine
- Refrigeration
- 3 × 172 L fridgesPlus Frigonautica freezer
- Navigation
- B&G / Simrad
- Communications
- VHF · 5G · SatcomSatellite broadband
- Steering
- Outside helms + inside helmFly-by-wire steering at the inside helm station
Performance
- Predicted top speed
- 40+ knPolar peak 40.7 kn
- Foiling onset
- 11–13 kn TWSDepending on sail set
- Upwind, 13 kn of wind
- ≈ 24 kn
- Downwind, 14 kn of wind
- ≈ 31 kn
- Crew
- 4 per watchTo sail her fast; two watches for round-the-clock ocean racing
Velocity prediction program, partially validated in sea trials.
Design & build
- Naval architecture
- Morrelli & MelvinNewport Beach, California
- Lead designer
- Ferdinand van WestThen at Morrelli & Melvin; now Van West Naval Architecture
- Interior architecture
- Design Unlimited
- Builder
- Persico MarineItaly
- Flight control
- Team New Zealand engineers
- General arrangement
- PB72_001 · Rev A6 August 2022
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.
- VPP targets calculated at
- 20,280 kg
- Design racing displacement
- Sea trials sailed at
- ≈ 21,500 kg
- As-built racing displacement
Every circled target was reached with the boat about 1.2 tonnes heavier than the weight the predictions assume.