Next-Gen 27 Valor Cat At Manatee Marine

The owner of a hard-to-miss 34-foot Victory catamaran, Devin Wozencraft and I were cooking along at 105 mph on our way back to the Sarasota Hyatt—ground zero for a week of casual high-performance boating events—on New Year’s Eve 2024 in Southwest Florida. Water conditions were semi-sporty, meaning an estimated 1 to 3 feet.

“Look at that,” Wozencraft said and nodded toward a 27-foot catamaran piloted by Manatee Marine Unlimited’s Julian and Ricardo Maldonado as it passed us. “How cool is that?”

The beam, tunnel and overall look of the two 27-footers are substantially different. Photos by Matt Trulio/Speedonthewater.com.

“What the hell is that thing?” I asked. “I’ve never seen one before.”

“It’s that new Valor cat,” he replied. “I think it’s a 27-footer.”

Yesterday during a short tour of Manatee Marine Unlimited headquarters in Palmetto, Fla., I saw it in person. It was parked on its trailer next to another all-white catamaran on the full-service, multi-brand dealership’s lot. But it looked different than the adjacent fully rigged 27-footer that impressed Wozencraft and me during the New Year’s Eve trek. And that’s not because it was a bare hull.

It looked—bigger.

“That’s the first Valor 27 Widebody cat,” Ricardo Maldonado explained. “The Gen 1 version you saw has an 8-foot beam and a 43-inch-wide tunnel. The Gen 2 version has a 9-foot beam and a 55-inch tunnel.

“Both are sold boats,” he continued. “The 27 is going to Waves and Wheels to be finished. It will be a Waves and Wheels Edition.”

Standing between the first- and second-generation 27-foot Valor catamarans, Ricardo Maldonado had plenty to smile about.

Like its smaller sibling, the 27-footer will be powered by a pair of 300-hp outboards. “We expect it to run 120 mph,” Maldonado said, then smiled.

Thanks to its wider beam, the Valor 27 Widebody cat will be offered with a five- or six-person cockpit, depending on buyer preference. It will boast a wraparound windshield “so everyone will be comfy in there,” Maldonado added and grinned again.

Both Maldonado and I had other work to do and light rain was starting to fall, so I didn’t stay long. But before I left, he told me “off-the-record” about a few other projects/developments happening at Manatee Marine Unlimited, which is owned by his brother, Julian and Sara Langheim, the wife of world champion Super Stock-class Jackhammer team owner/driver Reese Langheim.

In my professional world, off-the-record stays off-the-record until the person who owns the information is ready to release it—at least if you ever want to be told something still-secret ever again.

And so it will for now.

Said Ricardo Maldonado before I left, “There’s a whole lot going on at Manatee Marine. Just wait.”