All boats are designed for a specific purpose and this rule includes catamarans. Manufacturers look to their market and decide how the buyer will be using the boat. The boat is then designed to be the best boat within desired parameters such as price and size. If a majority of the builder's boats will be going into charter, the boats will be optimized for charter, and if a cruising boat is the builder's market, then a boat will have many options that are not suited for charter.

There appear to be several basic classifications of Catamarans being built today (and seen at the shows). Offshore Cruising Cats, Coastal Cruisers, Charter, and Performance Cats are the types most common. Following, we break out these types and try to show some of the features and differences between them. We don't believe there are positives or negatives to any of these types but rather reasons for the differences.

CHARTER: Since charter boats are usually used in developed areas and mostly in the best weather, we find lots of glass (sliding doors) between the cockpit and salon. This is desirable for the numerous guests and the charter sailors that will be using the boat. The openness is positive for the charter set. Many times the accommodations are broken up into four staterooms and heads to house more people. Storage is usually not as big of concern, so the room is used for more staterooms. Sometimes a fly bridge is added to get the operator out in the open air and sunshine. The ground tackle is sized to fit a limited need when a boat is in charter. Interiors are built of what are known as Internal Glass Units (IGU's).  IGU's are less expensive to build and easier to repair than custom interiors (again better for a charter boat). Systems are designed to be basic and simple to fit all of the charter customer's abilities and knowledge.

PERFORMANCE: High-performance boats are really designed differently than the other categories in that the stresses and usage are much more demanding. Usually these boats are much more expensive and Spartan than charter or cruising boats. They will go faster, sail better, and be more exciting than other boats. Racing or getting there quickly are the main uses of high-performance boats. Comforts for cruising such as a washer-dryer will not usually be aboard this classification of catamaran due to weight.

COASTAL CRUISERS: Smaller cats fall into this category, as well as cats that have little or no division between the salon and cockpit other than dodger material. Cats with narrow beam might also be considered coastal boats since they will not be as stable as wider beamed boats. A narrow beam is desirable for ease of docking in limited space areas. Again, the more open the boat, the better the party at the dock or close inshore. Some of these boats are very good sailing boats.

OFFSHORE CRUISING CATAMARANS: An offshore cruising catamaran will have many features that other cats do not need. Some of these features are for safety and others for convenience, but most are more costly and thus not found on boats that do not need them. Since many offshore boats are sailed by a single person or a couple, the systems must be easier and quicker to use. The boat must be designed to take the roughest weather and remain water tight and safe. The equipment should be designed not only to be redundant, but also to take into account problems incurred by cruisers anywhere in the world, whether anchoring or taking on fuel. In many parts of the world, repair yards are not on every corner, so the owner needs to be able to easily get to and repair troubled areas.

Manta builds one of the finest offshore cruising catamarans in the world and following, we explain the some of the systems and features that we believe should be on any offshore catamaran.

Features for Offshore Sailing

Safety

1. DUAL-ANCHOR SYSTEM. Your ground tackle is your number-one safety feature and our system makes it easy to deploy two anchors if necessary. The size of the windless is also important and the Maxwell HWC 1500 is oversized for the boat.

2. ISOLATION TRANSFORMERS. A safety measure that should come standard on all boats but it is expensive and most do not include it. This separates the shore power from grounding in the boat.  In cases of improper grounding or bad shore wiring, it saves zincs and prevents electrical shock in the water around the boat.

3. BOOM BRAKE. Every boat should come with a boom brake standard.  This piece of sailing equipment can prevent an accidental jibe from damaging the rig or causing injury. Our Dutchman brake is a must for offshore cruisers.

4. KEVLAR-REINFORCED BOWS & KEELS. Stronger for unexpected impacts.

5. COLLISION BULKHEADS WITH WATER-TIGHT COMPARTMENTS. The boat should be able to float even after a catastrophic event.

6. IN-COCKPIT REEFING. When you need to reef, you can be in danger if you have to do this on the deck. With our unique sail-handling system all reefs can be taken sitting at the helm seat by one person and more quickly than traditional systems.

7. VISIBILITY. Visibility is critical to safe operation of a boat in all situations such as shipping lanes, heavy weather, and docking.

8. LIGHTNING PROTECTION. All Sail catamarans are susceptible to lightning strikes and Manta leads the way in protection and prevention.  A very large surge protector, a lightning ion dissipater, and a Strike Shield grounding system are features that we strongly recommend and put on the boat.  The hardtop arrangement is also a safety feature for lightning strikes as the aluminum frame acts as a Faraday shield to protect anyone under it from harm.

9. COURTESY LIGHTS. In offshore sailing the helmsperson sometimes has to go below and red courtesy lighting ensures night vision and avoids the pitfalls of walking in the dark.

Easier & Better Cruising

1. ENGINE ACCESS. Fluids should be checked each day during cruising and the ease of doing this dictates how often it will get done.

2. FUEL-POLISHINIG SYSTEM. Sooner or later a cruiser will take on a bad load of fuel, and our Purtatec fuel-polishing system allows for cleaning bad fuel at anchor or the dock without having to carry several cases of fuel filters.

3. STORAGE. Manta consistently receives comments on how much storage there is the MKIV, even under the stairs. Cruising boats should have as much space as possible.

4. EASE OF HANDLING. All lines run to the helm seat and to the electric winch, which make this an easy boat to single hand. You will sail more if it is easy. Many owners often will sail running the spinnaker by themselves, due to how easy it is. The 100% headsail allows for turning the wheel to tack. It doesn’t get any easier.

5. REFRIGERATION. Our ten cubic foot, top loading refer/freezer has 7 to 9 inches of insulation for low energy draw and huge storage space.

6. CCF LIGHTING. Low energy draw and expensive but the best for a cruising boat.

7. SOLAR PANELS. Solar panels should be able to power the entire boat in the tropics, which is achieved by good energy conservation equipment that comes standard on our cruising boat. On the Manta the 6 solar panels will run the boat with the exception of air-conditioning, which requires 110. This means that the days of getting up in the morning and running the engine for a couple of hours to recharge the batteries is over.

8. OUTFITTED the way you want the boat, not the way the builder wants to build it. Our boat is a semi-custom boat with literally hundreds of choices of finishes, fabrics, extras and equipment.