Are there any used Tom cat 255s for sale anywhere ?

To bring this thread up again and update the Brats, Larry has found his TomCat :wink: Cory will be picking Dreamer up Thursday AM and delivering it to Ventura. Please welcome Larry and his wife Laurie who will be cruising the Channel Islands, fishing and diving.

This has been a busy couple of months for both of us. Hopefully Larry will be able to relax a bit and visit the C-Brats site a bit more. They will be a welcome addition to the group.
 
Welcome aboard Larry and Laurie! You got a great boat. Roger and Janet are meticulous boat stewards. Everything is really nice aboard. Enjoy the ride. George and Carolyn
 
Welcome aboard--and you will really enjoy the Tom Cat in the Channel Islands area. Be sure and head out early in the AM--but you probably know that already! Trim up bow up when running home. Great platform for diving and fishing, as well a cruising.
 
Welcome aboard Larry and Laurie. I frequent the Channel Islands regularly -- well, not as regular as I dream about them lately. But I do plan a strong season of getting out on the boat this year. Even leaving for Catalina this w/e for some needed R&R.

Make sure you take advantage of get-togethers we have, closest is the Catalina Adventure in August, a must-do. There's also the Delta Extravaganza up in the San Francisco area, 350 miles, but another great time. That's in May, but you might not be quite ready for that length of drive until you get settled in with your boat and towing arrangements.

Hopefully our paths will cross in the near future. Enjoy your boat and looking forward to meeting you.
 
This is a done deal now for sure! Here's Cory of Sharp Yacht Transport with Dreamer in tow. It was noon Thursday and he expects to be in Ventura, CA by Friday night. Larry has an outing planned for the weekend! :wink:

DSCN2510.sized.jpg
 
Sad to see for us Roger and Janet; however, we are happy for you guys it all went down as planned.

So what's the plan with the new "land yacht"? Do you guys already know for sure what 5th wheel you are planning to acquire or have you guys been hitting the RV Show circuit?

Good luck with the new boat Larry and Laurie. Hope your boating is as enjoyable and safe as that of the Clark's. Its great acquiring a boat that was so well taken care of!

Take care,
Dan, Tanya, and Hannah on C-Renity
 
Hi all thank you for the warm welcome and well wishes. We are so thankful to Rodger And Janet for such a smooth deal and the best 255 out there, truly first class people. It is truly a dream ( Dreamer ) come true for our family. I have been frequenting Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands for years in my 20 foot rib and am so happy to be getting a boat with the comforts my family needs to enjoy the ocean as well. For the family we will be planing trips to Catalina and Santa Barbara and as for me and the guys you can find us at Santa Rosa, San Miguel and the other outer islands. We look forward to meeting others in the boating community and enjoying some fresh fish dinners and nice red wine.

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Larry,

I've owned a TomCat for two years and except for its non-existent tunnel clearance when at rest or slow speeds (which causes slamming and a noisy night on the hook) the boat is terrific. It's much more stable than a mono-hull, and it has more room (interior and cockpit) than the C-25. We've learned not to run it DIRECTLY into a chop of more than 2-3 feet (just fall off 15 degrees) and to tuck in to a more protected part of the anchorage. Only other CON are those darned fish boxes which do not stay dry...but check out the forums for various solutions.

It's built like a tank, and it goes like a rocket.

Knowing what else is on the new market, a new TomCat is not cheap. But it is a very unique boat and worth the money if you plan to keep it for a few years.

Good luck.
 
Larry,

Great to hear that there is another C-Dory on the west coast. While we have owned our 22 Cruiser for a year now, the Tom Cat is truly our dream boat.

We are at Catalina nearly every weekend. If you head over to the island, let us know. I would be happy to share some intel on fishing and diving spots with a fellow C-Brat.

-Tim
C-Pelican
 
Larry:

Like you, we spent a couple of years looking for a used Tom Cat 25.5 and nearly ordered a new one, before the like new used one we finally purchased showed up for sale just 30 miles from our house...we bought it on first sight.

Our main reason for chosing a TC was the ride. Our previous boat was a monohulled SeaSport 24, which although a very nice vessel, really pounded if on the plane in anything but nearly flat water. The boat prior to that was a full displacement Nordhavn 46 on which we were off shore cruising liveaboards. The Nordhavn was very stable, but also very slow. Given that history, what we wanted was a trailerable boat as fast as the SeaSport, but as stable as the Nordhavn...and the TC was the closest we thought would could come to that admittedly impossible combination.

Now after a couple of years of ownership, we find the TC to be about as stable laterally when stepping aboard as the Nordhavn, but it easily goes 4 - 5 times faster. We also find that there is a much greater range of speed from semi-displacement to planing in the TC than the Sea Sport, which gives one a lot of flexibility in adapting speed to sea conditions. Waves we would have had to come off the plane to deal with in the SeaSport, the TC just cuts right through.

The other thing we were somewhat surpized to find with the TC, is that (unlike the SeaSport and other monohulled planing boats we have owned), going faster in a pretty decent chop frequently results in a smoother ride than going slower. This is because at higher speeds, air pressure builds up between the hulls and acts as a kind of dampner, particularly to abrupt pitching motion. If you combine that with some engine shaft angle adjustments, and quarter into the waves rather than taking them head on, it is pretty amazing how bad conditions have to be before you slow the TomCat down.

Used Tom Cats for sale are a bit hard to find, and I suspect the reason for this is that most owners are fairly experienced boat people who are pretty happy with them, and are on the 'smaller is better' as opposed to 'larger is better' side of their boat ownership lives. Hence, they rarely want to sell.

Anyway, congratulations on buying 'Dreamer", we have been on that boat and it is one of the cleanest TCs in the area, plus it has a number of very well thought out and executed modifications...many of which we also put on ours.

Kevin Ware
"El Gato Thomas"
TomCat 25.5
 
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