I have talked to several sailing cat owners who came down the Tombigbee Waterway and indended to keep the stick off until they reached their home ports in Florida. All of these boats were going at displacement speeds and doing fine. (8 or so knots) The experience of cruising monohulls is that they use the engine about 50% of the time--and I suspect that cats are probably also using the engine almost as much. But certainly a power cat is designed differently--especially when one goes to increased speeds. Bob Austin