In response to Gary's knowledgeable but provocative piece, may I suggest that there is a place for PowerCats with planing hulls. Think in terms of the sports-fish style. If you need to go fast, and you don't have the length, then you have to plane. There are many reasons (cost; moorage) why you will want to stay below, say, 35-40 feet. In this length the planing PowerCat offers many advantages over its mono-hull planing cousins - stability; sea-keeping qualities; usable spaces. This style is perhaps most highly evolved in NZ and Australia where it enjoys an excellent reputation for off-shore use. But even for the weekend cruiser, where annual hours of use mean that the fuel bill is not a huge part of the annual cost of ownership, the comfort and speed of the planing PowerCat translates quickly into the ability to access many more places.