Rethinking Our Vineyard Trellis

This year, we have been spending an inordinate amount of time with shoot positioning. We believe that one of the problems that is causing us to spend so much time with shoot positioning is that the distance between the fruiting wire and the first set of catchwires is 12-inches.

When we were first contemplating how to construct our trellis system, one of the sources that we consulted, along with the many books that we have was the online reference Vineyard Trellis Construction, a very practical guide put together by Dr. Paul Domoto of Iowa State University, Viticulture Extension.
One illustration which was helpful in determining where to put our catchwires was this:

Our Manwerkes linepost has slots every 4-inches apart so that initially dictated our catch wire spacing. We decided on fixed catch wires instead of movable catch wires, so our three sets of catch wires are spaced 12-inches apart. When we didn't have a full vineyard, tucking in our growing vines was not such a huge task. Now that we are almost up to repopulating our vineyard, this has become a time-consuming task.
So, what is our solution? Our plan after this growing season is over is to raise the fruiting wire one notch on the Manwerkes line post. Raising the fruiting wire will shorten the distance between the first set of fixed catch wires to 8-inches.
Grapevines grow quickly after budbreak. The photo below shows grapevines two weeks after budbreak. Our thinking is that by raising our fruiting wire, most of the growing shoots will grow through the first catch wires, putting them on the right trajectory to grow vertically through the remaining catch wires.