@swbca Sounds good that you have an OffCourse™ coming!
Regarding simulating gates with fixed buoys, it sure would save one projectile per set but it comes with other challenges. Flying down the lake at 36 mph means that if the start button is being pushed just two-tenths of a second too early or late when passing the buoy, you will end up with an off range of over 20 feet in distance between the gate and one ball in between sets.
We often use a start buoy during photo shoots to have a sense of where the splash will end up in relation to the camera guy and it is nearly impossible to sync by hand.
Just like @braindamage said, there is a learning curve to the zero ball, but after a few sets you will have it figured out ?
I appreciate all suggestions for improvement and read everything in this thread, so keep em coming!