Imagine a sailboat moving through water. As it speeds up, it pushes a wave in front of it – called the bow wave – and leaves a wave behind – the stern wave. These two waves create a sort of "wave pocket" that the boat sits in.

The faster the boat goes, the longer the distance between the bow and stern wave becomes. Eventually, the boat gets stuck between its own waves – like sitting in a watery hammock.

This is called the hull speed – the natural top speed of a displacement hull (like most sailboats), beyond which it’s extremely hard to go any faster without lifting out of the water.

? Simple rule:

The longer the boat, the longer the wave it can create – and the faster it can go before hitting this natural speed limit.

But here’s the catch:
If you try to push a typical sailboat past its hull speed using a massive engine – like a 1000-horsepower Lamborghini V12 – what happens?

You burn tons of energy, but get almost no extra speed.

The boat digs deeper into the water instead of lifting.

The resistance becomes massive, and even that Lambo engine can’t overcome it.

? Why do powerboats go faster?

Speedboats and jet skis have what's called a planing hull – a flat shape designed to lift up and skim across the surface of the water at speed.

Once they’re up, there’s very little resistance, and they can fly across the waves.

But a classic sailboat has a displacement hull, made to sit in the water, not on top of it.

? Everyday comparison:

Putting a Lamborghini engine in a sailboat is like strapping a rocket to a bicycle.
You won’t go much faster – you’ll just get unstable and maybe crash.