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I can see why many people would not want to bother with jackplates, and avoid the additional $350 expense. But as an alternate opinion, I use 6" or greater setback jackplates mainly because they allow for much cleaner rigging of the boat, keeping all the cabling out of the way and out of the splashwells. My experience is that they also improve ride, used in conjection with a good lifting propeller. And they allow for fine tuning of engine running height, which may or may not matter to a person.

As to whether they make a boat go faster, I have no data.

Here what I consider to be clean rigging on a Montauk - everthing dressed to the battery side:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lgolt...0817652866

In both cases, the use of jackplates gives me additional useable space in otherwise fairly small boats.