Cruise to catch up.....Allowed?

[Muleo]

This is the pirate in question:

Yeah I know it's a dumb rule, but it does make sense.
I normally fly a gunboat myself, and it does make sense, that for the extra hull and guns I get, I lose mobility, which means I cannot catch up with a fighter.

Thats why as a BH unless you know your quarry is flying a capship, you should stick to fighters and bombers.

Today during an attempted bounty hunt, it was a pirate bomber against me in a gunboat and my frined in a BC. The pirate brought up an interesting question. When the pirate got out of range of our guns, his faster thruster, we turned on our cruise engines to catch up. I know the rule about hitting cruise to run from a fight, but i was not trying to run.

So....Is using cruise engines by cap ships to close distance with bombers and fighters a valid tactic?

If i was wrong, i apologise to the pirate i was hunting. I wasn't running though, and think it should be a valid tactic, or bombers and fighters can always just thrust away from gunboats.