SOLD - C-Dory 2004 25 Cruiser for sale, new listing soon.

B

BillE

New member
I'm letting Marc at Wefing's in Eastpoint Florida handle the sale, he will have the listing up soon. 150 Yamaha, full custom camper back, etc.
We enjoyed her but it's time to make other plans. I have three photos in my profile, third one shows the camperback set up but not yet buttoned down tight. Marc will have more photos.
 
I don't see many C-Dory boats in the Lower Florida Keys. How are the 25s at anchor in high temperature locations like The Keys and Bahamas? Do they get good air flow at anchor? I'm in the market for a trailer able boat with accommodations. There are two C-Dory 25s for sale in North Florida and another in North Carolina I want to check out. Also, I realize they have a flat bottom aft with a nice sharp entry forward, but we get a tight chop of 3 to 5s in winter and I wonder how it handles that. Probably like my current boat, a 26' Imemsa panga; I slow down and don't take them head on. I appreciate any advice. Thanks, Jeff Kelly, Ramrod Key, FL[/code]
 
Jeff, that is my 25 but I've never used the boat in Florida. All of my boating with it has been on the Cumberland River in Nashville. We get hot in Nashville but I have lived in Key West and do understand the difference in sun intensity. So I will leave it to the Floridians to tell you about C-Dorys in Florida, but I found the cabin to be blessed relief from the sun and with the opening front window plus the hatch we had great air flow while underway. I was comfortable on the hottest days, as long as we were moving. The cockpit is fully shaded by the bimini, too. You do get much better breeze in the Keys than on the river and that would also make a big difference. I had a sailboat in the Keys and never noticed the heat on that, only the sunburn.
 
Jeff
Several of us have spent time in the Keys in 'winter. Lake Effect is one of the boats who still owns their boat.

I sailed in the tropics for a number of trips--and on a sail boat we were comfortable most nights with a wind scoop letting the trades down the hatch. However, when coming to Florida, we considered AC an essential.

We always carry our AC if it looks like it will be hot at night. We do have several fan choices to push breeze down the fore hatch, and two fans in the V berth area. An "Endless Breeze" 12 volt fan is probably the best. We use several 5/8" dowel rods flattened where they hit the hatch rim to support the fan, external to the screens. We also use a Ryobi battery operated fan in the forward opening window.

As Bille says, during the day it is not an issue. At night if it is humid and does not cool off, then you need AC. That is going to be true of any boat--power or sail-=unless there is good Tradewinds. I have a Caracal Cat which is my bay and fishing boat. I have a large Bimini which folds flush with casting deck if down. The C Dory25 pilot house is more comfortable in hot weather than the Caracal Cat under the Bikini.

The running. If you are talking about true 3 to 5 foot short period seas--forget the C Dory--Even the Tom Cat, which I feel runs as well in a Contender or Regulator in 3' seas will not do it in 5' seas. 5' seas are pretty serious--and no boat I know of will be comfortable, except the larger cats, like a Freeman or the new Easterns in the 35 to 40 foot size. Also the large monohulls like Fountain, Yellowfin will be OK. I am very familiar with Panga, but you cannot run one fast into 3 to 5. They will drown you! :P There are some similarities with the Imemsa Panga with its flat bottom. We ran out of Marathon in the Caracal Cat, and in many conditions it rides as well as the C Dory Tom Cat 255 because of greater tunnel clearance. But once much over 3 foot short chop--too much.

The key to the c Dory in any chop is to put the bow down with both trim tabs and a Permatrim on the motor. There will be spray, but you are in a pilot house and the windows can be closed (but if very hot--a catch 22). The other side of the coin--is that there are only a few boats with true cruising accommodations in this size. The Rosborough 246 is one which is semi displacement and will handle the chop better, but not 5 footers.... Lower cruising speed, and more HP, less economy. There are very few others such as the Ranger Tug outboard 23 and 27, and the Cutwater of same sizes. The World Cat and Glacier Bay cats don't have the accommodations. They don't run as well down wind/down seas as the C Dory line.

The other beauty of the C Dory is the trailer ability and being able to "Boater home" on the road. This is why many of the boats have an RV air conditioner or a window unit in the front opening window. We have it setup so that even us old and cripple folks can put the unit up in a couple of minutes. Run the Honda Generator if necessary, to cool the boat down--then in the middle of the night, the fan will keep you comfortable. (CO is always an issue, and we have 3 CO monitors in the boat--generator exhaust over the transom--and try to always have it going down wind from the cabin.

Get a ride in a C Dory and see if it will work for you.
 
Does your Panga have trim tabs? I find these essential for getting a good ride out of my C-Dory in any sort of chop and they worked very well once I got the hang of using them. On the often choppy river we preferred to travel from the mid-teens to low twenties and with proper trim could almost always get a comfortable ride. But we were never in three to fives!
 
Hi Bob Austin and BillE. I appreciate the quick response. I plan on visiting Welfings in early November. I am also going to see one in North Carolina. BTW I really don't plan on taking a C-Dory, or any boat, into 5' chop, but stuff happens.

My plan is to make repeated trips to Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West. I used to work on the National Park Service resupply ship in 2004 & 05. We made weekly trips out to Fort Jefferson. During that time we evacuated the ship 5 times for hurricane evacuation. That left my wife to deal with spidering our 30' Alura in the canal. That taught me the value of a boat that can be put on a trailer.

That area west of Key West is incredible. For scuba or free diving, the place is heaven, but without the pirates. The thing is, there are a couple of deep channels between islands that must be crossed. When a front blows against an opposing tide, it gets real rough. The NPS ship, MV Fort Jefferson, is 110 feet with 3 diesel engines, and we got tossed around like a rubber ducky crossing those channels. Of course, in a C-dory I'd sit it out and wait for the wind to drop.

I like the 300 mile range I've read about the C-dory. I looked at Rosborough 246s, and they are beautiful, but I store my panga, and future boats, on a floating dock with drive-on / winch off ability. (but I still need a trailer for hurricane evac) The Rossy's skeg would be a problem on a floating dock, I believe. Also the used Rossy price is pretty high. I'm hoping a C-dory will fill the bill, even though I've yet to have eyes-on one.

Regards,
Jeff Kelly

Another thing that is of great value is C-Brats. The wealth of experience, knowledge and fellowship is priceless.
 
Hi Bob Austin and BillE. I appreciate the quick response. I plan on visiting Welfings in early November. I am also going to see one in North Carolina. BTW I really don't plan on taking a C-Dory, or any boat, into 5' chop, but stuff happens.

My plan is to make repeated trips to Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West. I used to work on the National Park Service resupply ship in 2004 & 05. We made weekly trips out to Fort Jefferson. During that time we evacuated the ship 5 times for hurricane evacuation. That left my wife to deal with spidering our 30' Alura in the canal. That taught me the value of a boat that can be put on a trailer.

That area west of Key West is incredible. For scuba or free diving, the place is heaven, but without the pirates. The thing is, there are a couple of deep channels between islands that must be crossed. When a front blows against an opposing tide, it gets real rough. The NPS ship, MV Fort Jefferson, is 110 feet with 3 diesel engines, and we got tossed around like a rubber ducky crossing those channels. Of course, in a C-dory I'd sit it out and wait for the wind to drop.

I like the 300 mile range I've read about the C-dory. I looked at Rosborough 246s, and they are beautiful, but I store my panga, and future boats, on a floating dock with drive-on / winch off ability. (but I still need a trailer for hurricane evac) The Rossy's skeg would be a problem on a floating dock, I believe. Also the used Rossy price is pretty high. I'm hoping a C-dory will fill the bill, even though I've yet to have eyes-on one.

Regards,
Jeff Kelly

Another thing that is of great value is C-Brats. The wealth of experience, knowledge and fellowship is priceless.
 
You are going to have to run the boat conservatively to get 300 miles range, with 10% safety factor. I had just a little over 3 mph on a one month, 1200 mile Alaska trip--but this included some time at lower speeds, and in my first 25, with a 130 Honda.

This below is what I get with my current 25, with the 150 Honda.

graph_data.jpg

The one aberrant reading is at 1000 RPM--the flow meters don't read as well when under a gallon an hour. I suspect that the real mileage at 1000 RPM is close to 6 miles per gallon. Much of our recent Tennessee River trip was at 1500 RPM or a little above. We were using very little fuel.
 
Bob, I noticed that both you and Journey On show the CD 25 showing an increase in fuel mileage in the mid 20 mph range vs. The mid teens which I had thought was the most economical planing speed? Are my most economical speeds 6 and 23? I don't know modern outboards well, is it OK to run them at low rpms for hours at a time? What do you consider the CD25 range in trip planning.
Thanks
 
Micah
You can get on plane in the teens with a CD -25 but the C-Otters sweet spot for range is 22 to 30mph depending on load. I run a lot at displacement speeds (6 mph) with no harm that I can tell. It is a good idea to get it warm at least once a day. I put a lot of hours on my Yamaha 200......over 400 in the last year and 1/2. I also use my 9.9 a lot for fishing and if I’m happy with 5 MPH cruising. I’m pretty conservative about range and figure about 300 miles or so. We do have a fairly accurate fuel flow computer. Lots of variables but when it’s all said and done the average trip for us comes out to about 4 MPG.

My flight instructor said always keep an extra 10 gallons for the pilot. Not bad advice if you travel to remote locations.

BTW. Nice water maker installation.

Tom
 
I agree with Tom, that the point around 22 mph the mpg increase. The graph is from a previous owner, but I am getting very similar numbers as I run the boat. I believe that although the boat is planing at the lower speeds, the most efficient plane begins over 20 mph.

I have a Permatrim--I don't remember if Tom does or not. But I find that it is very helpful in trimming the boat and getting the best ride.

Looks like we all got a little off track on Bill E's boat for sale!
 
As far as range--if planing--plan in the 250 mile range. If running on displacement speeds--which we do about half the time if we are on our own, we figure 300 miles. With the first boat and a 130 hp Honda, we averaged slightly over 3.2 mpg over 1200 miles. We watched the fuel closely on one run where we had over 300 miles between fuel stops (when going to Ford's Terror, and Sawyer Glacier). We ran about 60% displacement speeds.
 
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