Feb 5. First Launch

Well, I ran out of things to do, so I guess it's time to put in or shut up. But I am a chicken, so even though this boat is designed for rough water, I thought I'd launch it on my home waters of Spring Valley Resevoir. No current and wind, just to get an idea of how the thing rows. Plus, Spring Valley is only 15 miles from my house. 

Turns out, Spring Valley is still covered in ice and it snowed a foot out there last night. We had a long deep freeze in December, and even though it's been in the low 40s for a month, it still hasn't thawed. 

It's still plenty thick for walking and ice fishing. I considered launching the boat on the lake anyway, just to see how far it would row in the snow, but I had no one with me to take the silly pictures, so I didn't. 

Clear back through Moscow and Pullman to Wawawai -- an hour and a half drive, it's almost 50 degrees down on the Snake River. It's like summer down there. It's an easy single-handed launch and recovery of this boat with the roller on the back of the trailer. Plus the boat is very light. You can see that it floats only 2" deep when empty. 

The varnished interior glows in the afternoon sun. Thanks to Mike Hamby for telling me to finish the interior bright and not paint it. He was right. 

I tried some minimal maneuvering on this maiden voyage. It rocks easily from side to side, but has plenty of reserve stability due to the highly flared sides. The further over you go, the more buoyancy goes into the water. And the thing spins on a dime. 180 degrees on one stroke. I was out there spinning didos and yucking it up. It'll have to wait until summer to do a full swamp test. 

Old dork selfie while standing in the angling stand with the Snake River breaks for a backdrop. 

Easy to load up, even with a quartering tailwind of 10 mph.