BIC Tracer vs WS Tracer

[singingdog]

I have been paddling a regular 14x28 Tracer (298 L). Looks like it might be replaced by a 14x26 WS Tracer (270 L). My worry, at 175 lbs, is that the WS Tracer will be too low volume in rougher water. I mostly paddle inland lakes, but do like to paddle on Georgian Bay in windy conditions. Any input?

[warmuth]

  It's a very stable board in chop. It'll do just fine for you. Very few 14' boards are really going to be too low volume for a 175 pounder.

[singingdog]

The Tracer got replaced by a WS Tracer. Thought I would add my impressions after 4 good paddles.

Immediately, I notice the loss of 5 lbs in the board: much nicer to carry, feels quicker to accelerate.

There is definitely a speed and stability difference between the 2 boards. On the GPS, I can average about .5 Km/h faster on the WS. I wasn't sure if the reduced width would be offset by the lower volume: pleasantly surprised that the narrower width does seem to result in higher speed. Board trim is definitely more critical on the WS. A few inches seems to make a fairly big difference. On the regular Tracer, I had to move quite a bit more to feel any real difference. Stability is interesting. If I am standing forward, where the WS has a lower deck, the board feels as solid as the Tracer. Moving back to the tail, where the WS is as thick as the Tracer, the board gets pretty squirrely. Consequently, pivot turning the WS is a sketchier affair than the Tracer.

I am a bit disappointed that there are no tie-down bars on the WS. All the BIC website pics show them, but there are none. I do like to do some light touring, so I will have to figure something out for attaching stuff to the board.

Overall, if I was going to pick between the 2 for flatwater, I would definitely go with the WS. For open water, with larger waves, the jury is still out.