It is all a matter of perspective. You want the fastest boat? Buy a Hobie TriFoiler, but be honest about what you expect from any boat.

You want lots of room for friends? Get a Hobie 21 Sport Cruiser.

You want speed, capacity and reasonable durability... the Hobie 18.

The Hobie Getaway offers quite allot for the price. Super durable, reasonably fast but its not meant to be optimized for speed. It is meant to be easy to handle. It is nearly as fast as a 16 with similar 2 person crews, but has tons more capacity and stability. It is likely faster than the 16 with similar 4 person crews and certainly way more stable at that point.

Honestly, if things started getting rough, I would rather be on the Getaway than some lightly constructed glass cat that is optimized for nothing but speed. The Getaway is solid.

You want to single hand in moderate winds... The Hobie Getaway is easy to manage. You want to have 6 aboard... it can do it.