I'm the guy Brad was talking about with the SkiJet boat with the cranked nozzel. My two cents with the plates vs. nozzel is a bit more complicated. Craig Millet's Comp Jets all varied 1) Rasperry, deep bow Rodgers 18' Cyclone- had nether and wouldn't recommmend them in that boat anyway. 2) Excalibur, 18' Rodgers Super Cyclone - custom up-down nozzel by McClure worked off left peddle and worked great to set up the boat in a turn could be a bit touchy if you were just trying to lower the bow in the chop but that is adjustable by the setup and return springs on the peddle. 3) Spirit, 18' Hondo Pantera straight deck - Custom peddel operated plates just like on a K-boat. Worked very well twin return springs on the stringer side push rod looked like garage door springs. Set the boat like a submarine and you could sqeeze on it in the chop to bring the bow down. But that boat had half the dead rize of the Rodgers and that made them four times as effective. 4) Spirit II, 19' Eliminator Daytona - first Daytona with plates similar system to the Hondo located only on the outside sponsons they were still effective due to the shallow dead rize angle between the center pod and the sponsons but not as much as the hondo due to them only being about a foot wide each side.
Now we have only talked about handleing, speed I'd give it to the nozzel since plates increase wetted area. If you want to talk cost, nozzel. A well designed plate system like the hondo cost thousands and that was thirty years ago.
Bottom line starts with the hull type then goes to the courses your running and the costs you want to take on. If I was to jump back in a boat I would probably go nozzel set up so full up is adjusted down to be legal and the fastest on GPS with big springs on a peddle so I would not accidently push down when I didn't want to. Then I would set the down angle to enough to blow the tail then dial it back a bit to race.
Other considerations, Brad has a point about blowing the tail but the bow not planting. That's balance, hang everything close to the transom plant the nozzel or plates and exspect a wild ride. Our Daytonas (one Comp Jet one SkiJet) both had drive shafts moving the CG forward. It was a bit tough for my SkiJet to carry the bow sometimes but otherwise I would have just crused past the turns and waved as the rest went arround the bouys. My cranked nozzel (which you can't do with a droop) was for setting into and through a turn only, would not help settle the boat in the chop. It also kept my competition thinking I had a scew loose which was just fine with me.
