A good friend owns a 50' flat out racing sailboat in SoCal and a 55' Fleming up in the PNW. He spends summers up north and says he can do 12 Kts at 20 GPH or 6 Kts at 8 GPH. Since he's been used to 6 Kts all his life, that works for him. He gets where he wants to go when he wants to get there and so he doesn't see the point of pushing it. And he loves his power yacht. That Fleming would be my perfect stinkpot when the day comes.
Well, it was also the '80s when I was racing Lightnings in SF with Mark and others; he was always the guy to catch (and a really nice guy too!). His wife is named Patty, hence the boat names - his prior boat was named that, not sure of the wood one. I moved to Seattle in '89, but sold my boat (#14079, 'Casper') to the Hickmans in Oregon shortly after, cause the (ex) wife didn't like racing. Haven't seen Mark in many years, just thought his quote was appropriate.
From his blog, November 17, 2015, third boat on this page:
Looks great but how is it possible? Hull speed should be around 8kts, so 10kts at 1gph seems particularly optimistic, no? Particularly if something like the skoota gets 7nmpg - know it’s more complicated than that but I’d love to know how/if it works.
I believe speed/range data on a powerboat after I have personally collected it.
