36 Manatee

The 36 Manatee is a particularly well-named boat—she’s as fat and slow as her namesake, and she’s clearly not among the more traditional boats on the water. Built in Taiwan, she’s constructed on a fully cored displacement hull with a wide beam, a relatively deep keel, and hard chines aft. Perhaps the most notable feature of the Manatee 36 is the amount of usable living space packed inside this boat. Indeed, the teak-paneled salon uses the hull’s full width (no side decks outside), and with the beam carried well forward, the master stateroom is as big as you’ll see in a 36-footer. Too, the entire layout is arranged with just a couple of steps dividing the main salon from the forward stateroom that adds to the impression of space. Originally designed with a two-stateroom floorplan, the single-cabin version proved so popular that only a handful of double-cabin models were ever built. Topside, the semi-enclosed flybridge comes with wraparound lounge seating for guests, and an extended cockpit overhang provides storage space for an inflatable. Note the rounded transom and weather-protected aft deck. A single 100hp Volvo diesel will cruise the Manatee for 1,100 miles at 6–7 knots. A total of 99 were built.