There have been fairly extensive debates on the forum about the maximum speed that can be reached by beach cats. Wouter once said the maximum is 30 knots. Others have strongly disputed that and claim the top speed attainable is 20-22 knots. The people providing these figures are mostly engineers armed with formulae dealing with factors of hydrodynamic drag, righting moment, and other stuff.

Non-engineer sailors provide claims anecdotally of speeds up to 30 knots, some of them backed up by their GPS. However, the engineers say such anecdotal reports are unreliable and often subjective. They concede that speeds that high may be possible in very short bursts, often enhanced by wave-surfing, but that such speed cannot be sustained.

Whether the maximum speed potential is 20 knots, 22 knots or 30 knots, everyone seems to agree that there indeed IS a maximum.