Gulf Coast Tomcats

[Alok]

A new Tomcat 255 has been added to the Gulf of Mexico fleet.

My friend Charlie and I took delivery of “Half-Time” - Hull # 48- from Wefing’s Marine in Apalachicola, Florida last week and it is now in its slip in Seabrook, Texas (near Houston).

The factory installed the refrigerator, hot water heater, and basic plumbing.

Wefing’s installed the motors (150 counter-rotating Suzukis), electronics (Raymarine C-80 with sounder, VHF, and 2 KW radar), the Wallas, an additional house battery, an additional charger, the VSR switch, a radar arch, a Navman fuel-flow meter, and a hot/cold freshwater transom shower.

This is a summary of our experience:

1. Every major system on the boat- structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing- worked perfectly.
2. It was clear that C-Dory had listened to the problems listed by other Tomcat owners. The gap between the pilot house and the roof was sealed; the electrical bus under the cockpit seat was covered; the saloon door closed perfectly, the shower sump drained properly, and so on.
3. The dealer (Marc Grove at Wefing’s) had checked all the factory-installed systems. In addition, the electronics worked as advertised, and the motors are a pleasure.
4. The boat was ready for sea trials on time, and the few leftover jobs were completed prior to delivery.
5. On the initial sea-trial, we were accompanied by Marc and his mechanic, Lee. We who went up the Apalachicola River to Port. St. Joe, a round-trip of over four hours. No major issue was identified.
6. The next day, Charlie and I felt comfortable enough with the boat to take it to Carabelle and up the Carabelle river. In two days, we put approximately 120 miles on the boat.
7. The dealer kept the boat for one day following the sea trials and completed all work on the boat. It was then delivered by the dealer to Clear Lake, TX, on its trailer 24 hours later- a distance of 700 miles. Incidentally, we have a Florida-built “Float-On” trailer and it seems to work well with the Tomcat.
8. Both Marc, at Wefing’s, and Jeff Messner at C-Dory, addressed all our questions and concerns promptly.

The only significant problem was that one of the Suzuki hour-meters had to be replaced twice. Bob Austin has had the same problem. There were also a few minor cosmetic issues in the cabin- but you had to look for them.

Overall, we had an extremely satisfactory experience. It is good to work with a responsive dealer and a responsive manufacturer.

[JamesTXSD]

Congratulations on the new boat, Alok! Good to hear that all went well with the sea trial and delivery. Hope our paths will cross somewhere along the Texas Gulf coast.

Photos of the new arrival? Have fun!

Best wishes,
Jim B. (at the other end of the TX coast)

[Alok]

Jim:

Thanks. Pictures should be coming soon.

Half-Time will be going in for some epoxy and bottom paint next week since we intend to keep it in the slip year round. Then come the bimini and the graphics...

By the way, you may remember our previous discussion and will notice that we elected not to get an autopilot. In retrospect, I believe that it was a good decision, at least for us. We do not anticipate doing a lot of trolling, so we will not be doing much traveling at 8 mph. Once you get beyond that, the Tomcat is not really comfortable until around 20 mph, and in our early experience, the best fuel economy was around 27-30 mph (2.1-2.2 mpg). We have only 11 hours on the motors, and this may change a little as things loosen up. Anyhow, I would not be comfortable using an autopilot at that speed.

By the way, Apalachicola is just a wonderful place to visit in the fall. It is a small fishing town (or, as a local T-shirt says, "a small drinking town with a fishing problem". The food is great and so are the people. We had a great time in the four days we were there.

See you in Corpus!