Six Guests Sail West From Ko Olina at Sunset
MANA Cruises sails its 46-foot catamaran MANAKAHI out of Ko Olina three evenings a week with six guests at most, and the crew plates a tasting menu while the boat works west along the leeward coast. The operator calls that menu pupus. Read it that way and the evening lands exactly as advertised.
Most of Oahu's sunset boats leave Waikiki and carry a crowd. This one leaves Ko Olina, well west of town, and takes six people.
MANAKAHI is a 46-foot Leopard sail catamaran built by Robertson and Caine in 2008, with three staterooms and three heads below. On a shared evening charter the entire guest list is six, so the trampoline forward and the shaded cockpit aft are effectively yours for two hours.
MANA was founded in 2017 and keeps three boats between Waikiki and Ko Olina, so not every review of a MANA sunset sail is a review of this one. It describes itself as a Native Hawaiian founded and managed outfit.
The trade is the calendar: shared sunset charters sail Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and that is all.
Boarding is at Ko Olina Marina, 92-100 Waipahe Place in Kapolei. The loading dock sits at the far end of the marina parking lot, about a two-minute walk from the car. The crew asks you to be there fifteen minutes before departure and comes to find you about ten minutes out.
Small Group Yacht Sunset Cruise from OahuA shared evening sail from Ko Olina Marina on a 46-foot catamaran, with a hosted bar, a prepared tasting menu and a crew of two. Six guests maximum. Sails Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.www.viator.comWhat the Tasting Menu Actually Is
The crew plates the menu underway. The operator lists short rib steak, a seared ahi green salad, local herbed chicken, a sweet and spicy yellowfin sushi spoon and Hawaii-style fried rice, with the caveat that offerings change based on availability.
It calls them pupus, which is to say Hawaiian-style hors d'oeuvres. Take the operator at its word and eat around this, not on it. Travelers writing in 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026 describe the same plate: small, short on choice, and by the 2026 account served at room temperature. One said outright not to count on it as dinner.
The bar is hosted for the whole sail. Bottled water, sodas, Hawaiian fruit juices, coconut water, beer, wine and spirits. Drinking age is 21. Red wine is the one thing the crew asks you not to bring aboard.
Six Guests Is the Entire Boat
Shared charters stop at six, and the reason is on the record. The operator has written it up: under the Jones Act and the MARAD waiver it operates on, its legal status lets it carry six paying passengers a trip, whatever the hull itself is rated for. The booking form will not take a seventh. A traveler in 2019 wrote that a total of six passengers made it feel private. One in March 2026 called six a perfect size for this boat.
The same cap reads differently if you are travelling alone. A solo guest in April 2026 gave the evening three stars for that reason, writing that they were the only single aboard with two couples and had seen nothing at booking to say the trip suits couples. One seat is bookable. It is worth knowing what the other five are likely to be.
Everyone sails barefoot. Footwear comes off before boarding, so sandals or slippers to the dock are the easy call. Button-downs and dresses are welcome, though the operator notes it can turn windy once you are out of the lee.
Three Evenings a Week, and a Clock That Moves
Shared sunset charters sail Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The operator's own schedule and the live booking calendar agree on those three days.
Departure shifts with the season. Mid-September to mid-March the boat leaves at 4:30pm, mid-March to mid-September at 5:00pm. The operator publishes both times and the live schedule carries the same two. One thing to catch: the winter option's own blurb on the booking page still reads four o'clock. Work to 4:30, and to whatever your confirmation says.
Length is the other figure with two answers. The operator calls it about two hours. The booking page sells a window of two to two and a half. Hold the evening open for the longer one.
What the Fare Leaves Out
Three costs sit outside the ticket.
- Parking. Take the left turn at the end of Waipahe Place into the marina's paid lot and budget about USD 23. The operator's access page says USD 23 flat on arrival; the lot's own Pay Here signs have read USD 22 since June 2024, settled by QR code or text at the sign rather than at a booth. The right turn is the free Lagoon 4 beach lot, which the resort publishes as sunrise-to-sunset only, making it the wrong place to leave a car on a sail that returns after dark. The USD 10 on the booking page is the boat ramp's trailer rate, and the resort's rules keep marina guests out of those stalls. Either departure ends well before the lot shuts for the night a little after eight.
- Getting there. Ko Olina sits well west of Waikiki and no transfer is included. City buses do not enter the resort, which leaves the nearest stop a mile or more from the dock on foot; Uber and Lyft can drive in to the marina. A traveler who drove out from town in 2024 advised leaving real margin for traffic.
- Gratuity. Not in the price. The operator puts the charter-industry range at 10 to 20 percent, says it is never an expectation, and will add it to your booking before or after if you would rather not carry cash.
Cancellation follows whichever counter you buy from. Booked here, a full refund needs 24 hours' notice and inside 24 hours there is none. The operator's own 48-hour rule covers its direct bookings, and it says so itself: reservations made through third-party affiliates follow different policies. Weather sits apart from both. The crew can call off a sail up to an hour before departure, with a full refund or a rebooking.
Keep your eyes on the water. The operator's list for these waters runs to Hawaiian spinner dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, flying fish, and humpbacks between November and April. None of it is promised. A line sometimes goes out over the stern, though on a shared charter the crew only fishes when the boat is up for it.
Sunscreen is aboard, and the operator asks that whatever you bring be reef-safe. If you are prone to seasickness, its advice is to start the medication 12 to 24 hours ahead, well before you reach the dock.
Then it is two hours of leeward coastline going gold, a plate of pupus, a glass that keeps getting topped up, and five other people watching the same horizon.