Need input on the TomCat 255 in heavy seas

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Tom J

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I am considering purchasing a TomCat 255. I currently have an Osprey Northwind 22 and I am looking for more size and a better ride in big water, 7 foot swells, 10+mph winds and above, which is about par for the NCal coast. There is a lot of buzz around here that a 25' Cat, and the TomCat itself, will have issues with seas above 7', especially if there is wind.

If any of you TomCat owners out there use their boats regularly in these kinds of seas and more I would love any input.

This seems like a site filled with good info so thanks in advance for your help.

Tom
 
I have been in 7 foot seas (Swells) on several occasions, and the Tom Cat handles this well. The weakness of the Tom Cat is going into short steep chop over 4 feet--but this is more likely to be in current against wind situation. If the situation is difficult, one can always "tack off" a few degrees so that they are not headed direcly into the chop.

At slower speeds, off plane, the tunnel is not clear--although the boat will move along at 4 to 8 knots, I do not believe it is a good speed in rough water. I have cruised with trawlers, and under choppy conditions, I would run ahead, at 20 to 30 knots and then wait.

What some of us have done is to put the Permatrims on the boat, and keep the boat on a plane at a slower speed. I find I can reliably keep the boat on a plane down to 11 knots--some folks claim 9 knots.

I feel the only other choice is the Glacier Bay or the World Cat, which is a semi displacement/displacement boat. (I have not been on a World cat in these conditions, but have been in a Glacier Bay) It will do better in a short steep chop (but now that I have the Tom Cat dialed in, I am not sure it does that much better). The problem with the Glacier Bay is handling in down wind/down seas--and that is where the Tom Cat prevails. The planing hull does not dig the bow in, and bow steer or have control problems, which the semidisplacement boats do. I feel that the Tom Cat gets slightly better mileage at high speed than the Displacement cats do.

There are several N. Calif. folks and Oregan folks who fish offshore in the Tom Cat regulary and are on this forum--I am sure they will speak up.
 
Tom J;
I live in Eureka Ca. The more I use my TC255 the more impressed I become. The swell has not been a factor in the handling. At slow speeds, less than planing, there is a slap from the wind chop. This is mostly negated by quartering the chop. I was out the other day looking for tuna and the wind came up to to create 4-6ft wind chop. I could not comfortably run into it with out tacking. Many of the mono hulls that were with me gave up and went home at 10-15 kts. I was able to put the TC on plane and cruise home at 22-25kts.
Great boat and very comfortable. You are welcome to call me if you have any questions. 707-444-3918

Gene Morris
 
Tom J -

I accidentally got caught in a storm off the San Juans with 35k steady winds gusting to over 50k. The TomCat handled that situation well.

As Bob of Thataway and Reefer relay, you can tack off the wind a bit if going straight into an upright chop starts sneezing. Downwind, the bow gets close, but never dipped, even in those high winds. The 50K gusts blew the bow off and we just had to compensate for that in between gusts. There seemed to be no danger of having the stern thrown forward in any conditions.

The TomCat was an amazing performer in high swells. We just surfed back to the coast of Texas at 20-22k riding the swell.

I can tell you that we daily ran the 28 mile Galveston Shipping channel out the the open gulf at 38 smph and no one passed us in any boat on any day and we had the smoothest ride...

The 7 foot seas thing is going to slow down most boats of this size to my thinking. You could buy an ice breaker, but how often do you need that?

John
 
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