would rocker tabs be a good idea with a fixed surface drive to give bow lift

Tabs, rocker or otherwise, don't give bow lift, they reduce it. on surface drives I've seen a 'tab' mounted to the drive that gives bow lift... you could use tabs to counteract that.

Look at the Arneson tabs. They are designed for exactly your application. High-rake props will bring the bow up too.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...d.php?t=177694

I haven't seen them actually create any bow lift unless the hull was originally designed to use them. I made the assumption (which is bad because I have no idea) that the original hull wasn't made to use them. The big cat hull in the thread above is a perfect example of a hull designed to use rocker plates.

what rake is normal i just bought a 17x26 mercury how do i measure the rake

You need to move this to the "prop" section and have one of the pro's that visit the board work with you on this. Unlike outdrive props, fitting a surface drive prop can be tricky. It's tough to get a borrowed or loaner set.

tell me about it surface drives are almost unherd of in ireland and no one makes props either

Rocker plates can add add bow lift by doing what they were designed to do, adding rocker to the hull.

anyone an idea what tabs would cost for a 26ft

Call Arneson. My guess is alot more than a good set of properly-matched props that will give you some bow lift.

How about some exact description of your boat, drives & power. That would help everyone in making recommendations to you. There are alot of issues that come to mind that would have to be eliminated. For example- if you had the boat on the wrong trailer and it has a big hook in the bottom, neither tabs nor plates nor anything short of divine intervention is going to help your problem.