Yacht Race by Parker Brothers, 1961
Personal Information
Acquired: 5 October 2001
Following a tradition for senior chemistry majors at
Wabash, seven of my fellow
Little Giants and I went to an annual dinner hosted by our
inorganic professor, Dr. David Phillips. After a delicious, somewhat
exotic meal and copious quantities of wine and beer, it was
suggested we play a board game. Dr. Phillips, a man of many resources,
went searching in his closet and pulled out Yacht Race, a game of
nautical adventures that apparently hadn't been played since a similar
chemistry dinner, twenty years ago!
Although many of us were "three sheets to the wind,"
the rules were straight-forward enough that we all managed ok and had quite
an entertaining time. Two of the highlights included a good friend of mine,
Greg Thomas. First, he managed to spill beer on the game board. After twenty years of safety in the closet, the game saw light for the first time, only to be splashed in a cold, frothy beverage. Perhaps that's just what the board wanted
after such a long hibernation. The second highlight ocurred right near the
end of the game. G-Thom, as we liked to call him, was close to the finish
line, but had no real chance of winning himself. He did, however, have the
option of maneuvering his yacht behind Dr. Phillips's yacht, thus blocking
his wind
and allowing another student to sneak ahead and win. After several threats
from one side about test scores mysteriously going down, and from the other
side about the dangers of betraying one's friends, Greg ended up flipping a
coin to see whom he would help out. In the end, friendship overcame the
grader's pen, and our fellow Wally was triumphant. It was about 2am when
we all stumbled out of his house, ready to head back to our respective abodes.
This year at Caltech while in my game buying frenzy, I decided to
periodically check eBay for a copy of
Yacht Race. Since it had been out of print for quite a while, it was
a little difficult to find, although not too bad. I ended up paying around $50
for the game, which wasn't bad considering the high quality of the board and
pieces. I had forgotten how big the box was...definitely not a bookshelf
game. Anyways, when the right moment comes, I'll unleash this game with
my friends here and see what they think of it.
Description:
Yacht Race is a fairly simple game. Each player's yacht can move
1, 2 or 3 squares, depending on the relative direction of the yacht's movement
and the direction of the wind. The wind's direction can be
modified by each player with
their limited supply of 12 "wind change" cards. These cards shift the wind one
notch clockwise, allowing the players to strategically manipulate how fast their
yachts can move. The players can also unfurl their spinnaker three times
during the game. Dictionary.com
describes a spinnaker as "A large triangular sail set on a spar that swings out opposite the mainsail, used on yachts when running before the wind."
Effectively, this allows the player to travel 5 squares while travelling
with the wind. Also, special squares on the board are marked "sailor's luck"
and invoke random events whenever a yacht crosses these squares.
The last major rule is that any player's yacht can block another yacht's
movement by maneuvering one square, directly upwind of another yacht,
thus "blanketing", or taking the wind out of, an opponent's sails.
Overall, this is a fun, high quality game with a running time of at least
90 minutes. Although the time might discourage some casual players, it
still plays quite nicely.
My Score: 7.5/10
Links:
Board Game Geek page.