Here a bunch of pics of my (almost) new 14'x25" Starboard Race that arrived last Friday - its only 'almost' new cause I picked up my shiny new 12'6"x24" AllStar today and its finned up in the garage awaiting it's maiden voyage tomorrow morning 
The tail looks interesting , is that big concave for better water release of the tail?
Select to expand quotemagillamelb said..
I'm not convinced this will be a design we'll see for years like the Ace...
It's such a deep concave it's almost a tunnel hull..
I'm guessing it will preven a slipstreaming wave and reduce the wetted surface once planing.
it may also help make the shallow concaves further up the board work better..
Or it could just be an interesting and different look thing..
Select to expand quoteAli Cat said..
Here a bunch of pics of my (almost) new 14'x25" Starboard Race that arrived last Friday - its only 'almost' new cause I picked up my shiny new 12'6"x24" AllStar today and its finned up in the garage awaiting it's maiden voyage tomorrow morning
Nice looking board and nice pics. So when will you use the 14x25 Race versus the All Star 12'6"x24"? I'm assuming the 12'6" will be your race board.
It will depend on what the race is, for BOP Style racing or anything that requires a 12'6" (sometimes we only have one class here as we don't have huge numbers of girls racing) the 12'6" AllStar will be my go-to board - and paddling it this morning I was really impressed.
I decided to order the race (4-5months ago) as a board that should go pretty will in flatwater but be a bit more versatile than the sprint, quicker than the AllStar of the same dimensions in the flat and into chop/wind, and more stable than the 23.5" AllStar. (Though I haven't tried any of these other boards yet to actually compare them). I've also still got a 2013 14'x23.5" Ace which has been my go to downwind board for a while and I'm going to hold onto it as well for now.
Im not going to give a full review right now as I haven't been able to do a lot of paddling this year and i'm currently carrying an injury (not from paddling) so I'm not in the best position to push any board to its limits and see how it stacks up....
But from the few times I've taken it out so far I'm pretty happy. In flatwater it feels reasonably quick and realtively easy into the wind. I have only taken it out in the ocean once for a light (~10kt) sort of downwind paddle & although it didn't feel as easy to pick up runs as the Ace (those conditions are where the Ace excels) once on a run with some speed up, it felt like it was able to connect the runs together and hold that speed ok, and it definitely felt more stable than the ace. I've also taken it out in chest high lumpy waves, and though most of us wouldn't typically surf a flat rockered 14' race board, I was impressed by how easy it was to turn and manoeuvre on a wave.
