The displacement hull speed (generally considered to be the top speed of a full disp vessel) is 1.34 X (the square root of the water line length). So the disp speed for an aircraft carrier is close to 50 knots. That's how they go that fast. No amount of power known to man could make them plane. Resistance is, however a combination of skin friction and wave making energy required. Planing hulls are plagued mostly by wave making forces and disp hulls going slow are held back largely by skin friction. Ninigret and Bartender are a planing hulls and have a submersed transom or stern and are plagued by the necessity of causing lots of turbulence (drag) at the stern at slower speeds (12 knots and less roughly). Since you, Axeman want to run at 12 knots (well above hull speed) but not planing your boat will be subject to more wave making resist-
ance. The force needed to push the water aside as a boat moves fwd is much less w a narrower boat. And the force required to over come the drag of the submersed transom making lots of turbulence aft is far less w a stern like Ketwomoke, Tang or Slipby. So w a narrower boat and a stern that allows the water to return gracefully to the surface is much more efficient. Such a boat can carry considerably more weight in the semi-disp speed mode of about 8 to 12 knots in our group of boats. Ketwomoke pays very little penalty for it's wider beam as long as it's speed is kept down to about 10 knots. You may have the skills to change the shape of the stern of Ketwomoke slightly that would allow her to go about 14 knots w the same power as Tang. Decreasing the curve and angle of the buttock line at the keel should do the trick. I'd consult w PAR or TAD before doing this however. Does this help?