Here's a question for all you expert swimmers out there- how much less efficient is the breast stroke than freestyle?

This will be my 4th season doing tris. I've always been weak in the swim. I love running and biking and those activities seem to consume most of my training time. I've come to a point where I've realized that short of quitting my job, dumping my boyfriend, or giving up sleep (and none of these are things I'm willing to consider at the moment) - I'm never going to put the time into training for the swim that I would need to be faster.

I do occasionally go to a local masters' swim. The workouts occasionally include intervals of non-freestyle strokes. For some unexplainable reason I'm considerably faster at the breast stroke (relative to other people) than in freestyle.

So what percent slower are most people when they go from freestyle to breast stroke? I had always thought of doing the breast stroke in a tri as giving up- but if I'm faster at it does it make sense to change back and forth? I'm also thinking it would prevent me from getting off-course (when I get tired I don't always swim straight).