Planning and sailing don't mix, IMHO. One of the interesting notions about a sailboat is the concept of planning. Although my style of cruising is "vacation cruising" limited to a few weeks at a time, I find the only time I can commit to "planning speed" is if I consider it a delivery and IF am willing to motor if weather and current conditions don't cooperate. My personal experience is that if we're on vacation and sailing we should leave the schedule at home, so given time limitations I tend to view the beginning and end of the vacation as a "delivery", and the vacation starts once we get to where we can have the attitude "the vacation is where we are".

Given that the entire family dislikes extended motoring, we tend to lower planning speed to about half our cruising speed under power (planning is 4 knots). This takes the pressure off, and if we get light air we are still more likely to sail and enjoy it. If we get favorable conditions we can sail at 10+ knots and it means that we cover the planned distance in 1/3 the time we planned, and nobody is unhappy about it unless we're heading home .

Our wake at 14 knots....