Regarding the Dashew
boat:
If you have enough
money, I think a
power cat beats a
monohull powerboat hands down unless there is a specific requirement for narrow beam, very low "air draft" or absolute lowest cost.
Regarding pod drives:
The efficiency of the pod drive over shaft drive comes mostly from the elimination of shaft angle. The PE has a very low shaft angle already, so I would be surprised if the pod would be more efficient that straight shafts in this specific
installation. Remember that the pod loses in nearly all other ways: more wetted surface, more weight, more mechanical losses due to the two sets of bevel drives and additional bearings. On typical powerboats, the huge win from getting rid of the downward shaft angle makes up for the other losses.
On typical powerboats pods help a lot for maneuvering due to the vectored thrust, and the joystick control. On a wide beam
power cat like the PE, I expect that you'll have so much leverage that you'll hardly need rudders to maneuver.
I suggest you sea trial one of the already launched PE boats, and see how well the shafts work for you.