Manatee Marine Unlimited Flush With Race- And Pleasure-Cat Projects

Walking down the Manatee Marine Unlimited property in Palmetto, Fla., to show a reporter the progress on a new-to-the-class Cat 300 raceboat owned by Connor Langheim, Ricardo Maldonado paused for a moment to look around.

A new 38-foot Valor pleasure catamaran (left) and a 31-foot Victory Super Stock-class raceboat are coming together side by side at Manatee Marine Unlimited. Photos by Matt Trulio.

“We’re super busy here,” he said, then chuckled. “I hear that’s a good thing.”

The reporter nodded. “It’s a very good thing,” he responded. “Being busy is a high-class problem.”

Originally built in 1997, the 23-foot Argo cat was stashed inside a separate building from Manatee’s main facility. A crewman was sanding its hull.

Connor Langheim’s Cat 300 raceboat is looking a lot closer to completion than it did a month ago.

“We should have it ready in time for the Lake of the Ozarks race in June,” Ricardo said. “That should be no problem. We wanted to make Cocoa Beach but that’s not going to happen.”

A month-and-half ago, the 23-foot Argo catamaran looked like a Franken-boat, meaning a loose conglomeration of various ill-fitting pieces from different vessels. At the time, Ricky Maldonado, Ricardo’s father, had hoped to paint the cat in the next few days.

Reality intruded and those plans fell by the wayside. But in the interim the hull-and-deck have taken form. The canopied raceboat looks a lot like—a canopied raceboat.

This 37-footer will soon be headed for completion by Justin Wagner and his talented Waves And Wheels crew in Missouri.

As it happened, the senior Maldonado passed by his son and the reporter as they headed back to Manatee Marine’s main facility. He was carrying a can of primer.

“I was hoping it would be orange by now,” he said, then grinned like the eternal optimist he is.. “It’s going to be tough to get it in time for Cocoa Beach.”

Back at the full-service dealership’s primary indoor work space, Julian Maldonado, who co-owns Manatee Marine Unlimited with Sara Langheim, is working on pre-rigging a 31-foot Victory raceboat. He will throttle the catamaran alongside owner/driver Jeremy Tschida in the Super Stock class this season

Built in Dubai, the third Valor 38 Widebody catamaran is on the Manatee Marine Unlimited property and soon will head into rigging.

Next to the raceboat was the second new 38-foot Valor pleasure catamaran. Hull No. 1 is being painted by Ray Brasher of Kentucky, who also will paint No. 2. Hull No. 3 is on property at Manatee Marine, as is a fully rigged Valor 27 Widebody cat that will soon be delivered to Osage Beach, Mo., for the full Waves And Wheels treatment in the near future.

The twin class-spec Mercury Racing 300R engines had not been installed on the Super Stock raceboat. Yet it did look slightly closer to completion than its single 300R outboard-powered Cat 300-class cousin.

“Look how far along we are,” Maldonado quipped, then laughed. “It’ll ready in time for the Lake of the Ozarks race.”