One more thing to keep in mind is the Bow wave effect (that Will hinted too). This effect basically means that as the boat pushes through the water, it causes a wave in front of it (i.e. the bow wave). It takes a lot of power to push through this bow wave or you have to have a planning hull to ride up on top of it in order to ever move faster than this wave. HOWEVER, once the hull length to width ratio exeeds roughly 11 (for example 11' long and 1' wide), the bow wave effect is no longer in play because the boat can slice through the wave instead of having to power over it. This has a lot to do with the additional speed potential for cats and tris.