My, Apache sure can be a little tricky to configure. Following a few tips from Ben Laurie I've just built myself a minimalist Apache / Catalyst / FastCGI configuration:

Listen 8081
ErrorLog manatee_error.log
PidFile manatee_httpd.pid
LockFile manatee_accept.lock

LoadModule alias_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule fastcgi_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_fastcgi.so
LoadModule mime_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mime.so

TypesConfig /etc/mime.types

DocumentRoot /mnt/app/manatee/root
Alias /static /mnt/app/manatee/root/static

FastCgiIpcDir /mnt/app/manatee/tmp
FastCgiServer /mnt/app/manatee/script/manatee_fastcgi.pl -processes 3
Alias / /mnt/app/manatee/script/manatee_fastcgi.pl/