Re: Sailboat Regatta

["Clark D. Rodeffer" <cdrodeffer@...>]

--- In piecepack@yahoogroups.com, "Benedict" <boycat_oh@y...> wrote:
> Clever little game! From a read-through
> of the rules I think you have managed to
> keep downtime to a minimum, even with the
> large number of potential players. And of
> course there is the potential for folks
> to play around with different tile layouts.

Right. I tried quite a few different tile layouts before I settled on
the one shown in the rules. The placement of the middle value tiles
along the downwind diagonal helps keep the boats from going too fast
over that leg. On the other hand, putting the extreme value tiles
(where wind gusts are likely to be highest) along the inside lane on
the crosswind leg and along the outside lane on the upwind leg
maximizes movement potential immediately upon rounding a marker buoy.
The rest of the tile distribution was designed to minimizing the
chances for going out of bounds.

Of course, players *are* free to fiddle with the course layout, but
keep in mind you'll need plenty of width on any crosswind or upwind
sections to allow adequate space for tacking.

> I do have a question: is it legal to sail
> directly over a sailboat or stack of
> sailboats? Or do you have to sail around
> as with the buoys?

I think of marker buoys as being much more of a hazard than other
sailboats, so yes, this is legal! The boats don't really hit or damage
one another, but they do get in one another's way when they're in
close proximity. So just as you can sail one of your boats to land on
top of a stack (thus stealing the wind from or "blanketing" everyone
below), you can also move over any non-buoy board spaces freely,
whether or not the spaces you pass over contain sailboats. The only
restrictions on movement are that you can't move when you're on the
bottom of a stack (until you're free again), every boat you move (not
counting just coming about) must sail exactly one space with the wind,
and if you're on certain edge spaces, you must come about to avoid
going out of bounds.

Phillip, thanks for your quick feedback, especially since you're
probably very busy with contest games these days.

Clark