The Tomcat was almost the perfect pocket cruiser. Great in the rough water, relatively a lot of room inside, didn't require huge power to push it along and a great platform for fishing. It had a two burner Wallas stove, built in fridge, hot water tank(which I never used once), wet head (never used that either) - essentially the comforts you need to make it not seem like you were roughing it too much. It had a nice interior finish, was cozy and warm. It had systems that were necessarily more complex, some hard to get to and more maintenance to keep it in shape than I wanted. We met other Tomcat owners who spent summers on board cruising the length of the coast.
With the Specmar I wanted to be able to still do multi day trips, but wanted bombproof, simpler systems and less maintenance like polishing gelcoat. So I essentially tried to replicate the Tomcat in a metal boat. I designed the interior to have most of the same stuff, but the boat is several feet smaller so it was a challenge. I still have a galley, but with single burner Wallas (which is the heater as well), sink, and I opted to put in a 12v Engel fridge on slides that I could also use in my car. It has a head with holding tank but no shower. I put in a lot of effort to try and make it "cozy" and less metal-like (wood table, and galley), nice hull liner, foam, full interior paint, lots of acoustic dampening tiles in unseen places etc. I think I was fairly successful, but it is still a metal boat which I don't mind but my wife liked the feel of the Tomcat better.
That being said, it is still a metal boat and is smaller. I have only been on 1 nighters so far and it is comfortable, but not as comfortable as the Tomcat. In that size range a foot or two really makes a huge difference in what you are able to do. I think about 4 or 5 days is all I would want to do in it at a time... maybe a week but I might not still be married at the end of it. Keeping fish cold would be a potential issue. I probably have room in the port deck box to make some kind of a fridge, but a cooler works fine for now.
I think the Specmar will make a perfect 3 or 4 day fishing trip boat that you can anchor out near the fishing grounds and be comfortable during that time. I would maybe throw my paddle boards on to have some exercise in the evening so I didn't go stir crazy. It has a 140 gallon fuel tank so the range is adequate (about 280 mile range at cruise) to be able to do that in most areas. I keep thinking I want to trailer it up to Coal Harbour and then run out to Winter Harbour to do some fishing as I have never been out in that area.
As I mentioned in my previous post my biggest beef with the Tomcat was that the tunnel was a bit too low. The aft portion of the tunnel actually sat on the water when the boat was at rest. This resulted in tunnel slap anytime there were waves. So when you settle down for a nice nights sleep and the wind comes up, you get irritating tunnel slap. Calm water in sheltered anchorages is fine, but you don't always have that option.
I do love the fact that with the Specmar I can hit a log at speed and do no to minimal damage or run her up on the beach. And a light coat of wax everywhere (yay, no gelcoat) and the fish blood just slides right off with the washdown.
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