I have the Tom Cat 255--and probably had some influence on Georgs decision, since he rode in my boat prior to pruchase of his 24. The 24 is a non current boat, which is much more "modernistic" than the classic pilot house C Dory. The 24 is lighter, easier to trailer and more econical to run. The bunk is about the same on the two boats. There are some advantages of the 24 over the 255--mostly the weight and ease of trailering. The ride is similar in both boats. The TC 255 is a bigger boat--with a 2 foot Armstrong bracket, plus extension of the cockpit and a slightly larger pilothouse. The 255 has a head (wet shower) up, aft, with windows in the front and back so you have visability aft. The galley is good sized, and we have a Wallas diesel stove/heater. There is a hanging locker, dinette for two, and a flip/flop foreward seat, so that the navigator faces foreward. The foreward bunk is close to king size--about 7 feet long, and about 60 wide. We have Suzuki 150's. Our idle to 30 is about 6 seconds. Top speed is about 49 knots and we cruise at 25 to 35 knots, with a fuel consumption from 2.1 to 2.3 miles a gallon at 25 knots (flow meters confirmed). One of the 255's has twin 115's and a couple twin 140's. I don't see a lot of more economy with the smaller engines, since they are working harder--and the HP required for the speed is close to the same in both engings. The boat does not have quite as soft ride as the Glacier Bay and World cat, into the chop--however it does much better than these boats down wind and in beam seas. The boat does not have the outward lean common to displacement cats at speed. The tunnel is not clear at displacement speed, so there is some slap at low speeds. However at full speed in up to 35 knots we have not had any signifficant sneeze. We can run at 25 knots into true three foot chop. We have added Permatrims (fins at the cavitation plates) which allow us to plane down as low a 11 knots. The boat is a planing boat-and have some of the disadvantages of this type of hull, but it is also reasonably effecient at our usual cruising speeds. We find it a very stable platform in beam seas and when fishing/cruising. The boats are well made, but there have been some minor quality control issues in the past. There is an extremely active owners group--and good communication with the factory, who moniters the site. We are off on a cruise--where we will go 200 miles in a day easily--some days 250 to 300 miles if necessary. There are issues in our life which dictate these higher speeds--vs the 6 knots we spent most of our life doing. Bob Austin