Wakeless launch completed

Well, I finally completed the "winter project" first detailed in this post. The boat seems to perform well and should serve as a useful coaching platform. We'll be the only high school team in the area with such a launch (the ODU women's varsity rowing team has three "wakeless" launches.) Below are three videos of the launch under way, at warm-up speed, at racing speed and at full throttle. Note when moving out the boat is hardly "wakeless." Perhaps "low wake" might be a better descriptor. I'll keep the boat in the water during the season and pull it out over the winter. In the tradition of naming our boats, this one will be called  Out to Launch.

A little bow down, but better to keep the prop out of the Lafayette River muck at low tide.

Test run at warm-up speed

Test run at racing speed

Full throttle