[willy]

I agree with you Tin, I am in a similar situation, most of my fishing is done on a drift. That seems to be the most popular method with most of my friends in the salt. I have been on a bunch of different boats of different sizes and all seem to rock to much to me. Last summer I was invited with some friends for a day of fishing on a 48' Ocean that was a tournament set up boat and beautiful, it rocked and rolled too.
Mine is set up differently to yours and I have no trim tabs, other than making sure my load is as balanced as I can get it I have not found any need for tabs, my Robalo CC rolled more and definetly needed tabs.
I believe the main difference as far as need for tabs was how the boats are balanced. I have seen the same thing on several other boats I have been on, for example my Robalo had close to max power and a heavy Merc V6, it sat stern heavy at rest, not as badly as some I've seen but obviously visible. It would be effected by quartering seas especially and never felt very secure in a handling way, especially considering the excellent hull and very heavy weight and solid construction.
Even though it was almost as heavy as my V20 cuddy it had no where near as nice a ride in various seas and conditions.
I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that my V is what most would consider under-powered with a 115 hp V4, and though a 150 is what I would consider perfect power wise the big advantage to the smaller engine is balance. My V sits perfectly level at rest, I mean bubble level. And from what I have seen on a few different boats that I have thought rode extremely nice they all sat perfectly level at the dock.
My friend with the Grady had a 23 foot Robalo, and removed his t top because he also drifted a lot and it was an older style, very heavy built unit and he said it caused him to roll to much, felt a big difference once removed. It sounds like a trade off you make for comfort and storage vs handling.