I am looking at a 36 skater to buy, found one that has a transom step with no trim tabs and 6's. I am wondering why, all others seem to have no step and tabs. Is this a good thing.

Your looking at a Bravo setup boat.

I am hardly a Skater expert; however when I did my first 36, back in 2002, I was told by Peter that they only put the transom step in for Bravo boats. The below picture is the Skater that was being built for me back in 2002. You can see it has been drilled for SSM#6 and no NO transom step.

Transom notches dont work with 6's.

Really.

Best look at the SCL class boat, and the 40' Skaters.

True forgot bout those
Not on a 36 spectre anyway

36 skater CL Showtime - has the notch, was a bravo boat and now has sixes - with 525's we can get 3.5% slip @ 118 mph with std set up - 1.5 ratio - the engines need to move all the way forward to get the cg in line - boat will weigh 9,000 lbs with canopy - great boat ans with a little power will go like the wind -

Looked Good in camebirge 3 yrs ago. kicked our asses!

james, did you put tabs in the notch and if so do you need them. bill

Boat has tabs - do you need the tabs ??? for sure it the water get more than 3' a little tab helps, but not much - a wet ballast tank takes care of most of the level flight rather than tabs - Boat planes out very easily with VI's and 525 - will stay on plane at very low mph with no tab - the water PU for the ballast tank is on the tab and tabs are used more for water pu to the ballast tank - they are easy enough to add later if you do not have them - If you need tabs then it is bumby out - if it is bumpy then you need to have your CG right, depending on the engines, and total boat weight then engines need to be moved almost to the bulkhead - CG is more important then tabs if it is bumpy out -

If this is a new boat for you and you are purchasing props get a 5 blades the harmonics of a 4 blade are just too loud at low speeds and will drive you crazy - the 5 blades are only noisy in a narrow 500 rpm band range