GoPro video of fin keel launching

jerrymlewis

jerrymlewis

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Jul 9, 2013
162
155
https://youtu.be/SDsipvu8hjc

This GoPro video was shot at the recent Whiskeytown Regatta held on Memorial Day weekend with this video showing our launch on the second day. Apparently we had not gotten the boat all the way forward on the dock the day before and the tongue weight was very light. I'm hoping to build some sort of long fulcrum to just swivel from horizontal to vertical and lift the tongue off the hitch ball and then drop down to the tongue wheel - instead of cranking on the pivoting jackstand wheel.
 
shnool

shnool

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Aug 10, 2012
556
WD Schock Wavelength 24 Wallenpaupack
If you'll pardon the pun, the only HITCH to that kind of launch is a ramp that is long enough... we're pretty fortunate that our local launch ramp is a submerged roadbed... there are many bay locations though that do not allow this mostly due to the ramp having most of the bottom eroded away from prop-wash from stinkpotters. But you can certainly tell you guys have done that a lot... My solution is to go to a weighted lifting keel. Launch anywhere now.
 
jerrymlewis

jerrymlewis

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Jul 9, 2013
162
155
Shnool,

The only place I've ever had any problem with not having enough length (22' boat + 25' line but it's not all the way out, so estimate I need about 40' of ramp) was at Tahoe Keys Resort on Lake Tahoe for the Fannette Island race a few years ago. Fortunately with the big 15" wheels/tires, it was easy to pull out and over the hump of the ramp lip.

Launched this way at Whiskeytown, Folsom, Berryesa, Konocti, Clear, Oroville, Rio Vista, Berkeley, Mission Bay, Long Beach, and at our home lake of Scotts Flat even when it's down 25' there is still lots of ramp left - abeit covered in mud from being unused and submerged for years of rainfall. It's currently at its lowest in my 25 years of racing there, but still launched last weekend for club races #13-15.
 
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