Happy Holidays fellas; I stopped at Ocean Performance today and looked at an 86 Cafe w Chris. It's got fresh (6hrs) 540 natural tall decks, fresh trannys and solid SSM IIIs on it. Shes got original gelcoat, and all in all through discussion (no survey yet) seems to be a decent 1st boat. Question: what to look for on a first year cafe? Did they have any of the tab/stringer issues the flat decks and early guns suffered from and or did they have any adverse driveability issues ie porpoising, stern lift, wash out? What would you consider a fair asking price? Thanks guys?

With the III's you will still porpoise a little, but not as much as the TRS's. Either way, you just learn to adjust. Some early Cafe's had a notched transom - i believe that plays a part as well.

I'm glad to see it's a gelcoat boat - at least you get to see any stress cracking.

Good Luck!

I believe it was 3 late cafes that had the notch. Chris is probably the most knowledgable cigarette expert you will find in the area. If he tells you anything about that boat bet your life on it, there's no bs involved to make the boat seem better or make him look smarter.
He can tell you exactly what happened when they notched a cafe, I believe he begged the guys at cig not to do it.
I've ridden in a trs cafe and a trs top gun, in calm water the gun porpoises more. Wasn't really noticeable in the cafe.

I resent this last remark!

I agree, Chris forgot more about Cigarette than we will ever know. Hes a straight shooter and a pleasure to deal with. Good luck with the Cafe....Ive seen it in the storage building and it looks like a sweet ride!

Check for moisture around the Tabs. The Jig wasn't accurate in a few early boats and caused some issues.

I thought it was EARLY Cafe's with the Notch, but I could be wrong.

Not sure on what the boat looksl like but if it's got a trailer I'd say 35-40 depending on how ORIGINAL it is.....

Well let the pride and 1 or 2 mph go and drop the damn tabs!

I can't....

Or stop *****footin it and nail the dam throttles

Tabs? who uses them???