Race the Wind reproduces the world of regattas (more than 2 boats) and match race duels (two boats). Learn to sail though its simple yet ingenious rules, and manoeuvre your boat as if you were sailing for real, experiencing a series of exciting and unforgettable challenges. You will perform 7 tense starting manoeuvres, exit the downwind gate and sail 3 times upwards and 3 times downwind; adopting the most efficient overlap and wind shadow tactics. You will have to handle wind falls, gusts and wind changes to the best of your abilities before you can win the yearned for Sailing Cup. These characteristics make Race the Wind suitable for the general public, as well as expert sailors, sailing charters, nautical clubs and sailing schools, as part of their courses. Get onboard and hoist your sails. The sea awaits you. What are you waiting for?
This game comes with delightful little boats models as the playing pieces!
How to Play
At the start of a race the board is set up with the Competition Boat piece and one of the pyramid buoy pieces on the South end and another pyramid buoy marker towards the North end of the board. Blue tokens (representing wind gusts) and yellow tokens (representing wind falls) are randomly scattered on the board. The wind direction arrow is placed on the board so that all players can see it and pointing in a Southerly direction so that the boats will be sailing into the wind at the start of the race. Two wind change markers are places towards the side of the board along the route. When the leading boat is in line with one of these flags the wind direction die is rolled causing the wind to shift to be blowing from the direction on the die.
Once the board is set, the boats are placed in their starting positions. Unlike most racing sports where the competitors toe the line and start from a dead stop, boat racing is more of a running start. The boats are each placed on any space that's either at least three spaces 'up course' of either the Competition Boat or Starting Buoy, or at least eight spaces behind or in line with the start line. There are seven turns for the boats to get themselves in the best position behind the starting line before the race officially starts. On the eighth turn boats can cross the start line and the race is on!
Each boat must move according to its orientation compared to the wind at the start of your turn. A boat can also unfurl its sails at any point to not move or manoeuvre. If a boat ends its movement on a blue token (wind gust), it may move forward one more space. Boat interaction during the race is a very crucial aspect of the game. Each boat casts a 'wind shadow' in the spot directly leeward, if at anytime, during any player's movement, another boat is in that wind shadow then a temporary wind fall (yellow marker) is placed two spaces ahead of the boat in the shadow; the boat has had its wind stolen and must manoeuvre out of the way or come to a stop. The first boat to cross the line is the winner.
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