I will take your word for it MichaelD "
On an earlier boat I was surprised to find that the sweet spot was around 14nmph, well above hull speed." But with that BL 4588 I have seen many this year in Desolation Sound, San Juans, and Gulf Islands that put out such a HUGE wake at anything above hull speed (sq root of LOW x 1.31) to believe there is a huge loss in efficiency. I mean there is a tremendous amount of diesel consumed simply in the making of 2'+ wakes that can be felt miles away for 10 or 20 minutes.
I think, and this is just my opinion, boats that exceed displacement speed by more than 20% and create these huge rollers should pay more in fuel tax than the sailboats and full displacement trawlers that are hard pressed to create a wake if their lives depended on it.
I am sure there are "blow-boaters" and other round-bottomed FD vessel operators (like Peter on
mvweebles) that might agree with me. These wakes can turn a flat, delightful cruising ground into a not-so-comfortable few minutes for those few extra nautical miles per hour. In many pristine, natural areas it bashes the shore, disrupts wildlife, makes more patient boaters queezy while burning much more carbon based fuel than need be. If they can afford burning two, three or five times the fuel to get there a bit quicker, regardless the impact on the area and other boaters, then maybe they can afford the lion's share of the fuel tax charged to boaters. Just my dos centavos.