Bruce,

As you benefit from consistent wind I would think you want the plates up around 12-18 Inches in 18+ and maybe 24" in 25 and then only 6" in the water over that....

All I can suggest is some time on the water and experiment with what makes the boat drive without too much leeway – remember we have plates that were originally designed for the Inter 18 and 20 so they are too big !

The problem we will always have in gusty conditions is finding the right balance as it’s difficult for us to move them while sailing up wind. Last weekend I was sailing in a gusty F1 to F4 (with snow ) and had to make a compromise on plates - most of the way down most of the time. At times in the stronger wind I could really feel that the boat was tripping over the plates up wind, but with short course racing on our lake the overhead of coming in from the wire to lift the plate (IMO) was not worth it.