Regatta

This 1946 game appears to have been privately developed and produced and predates the somewhat similar games published by 3M, Avalon Hill and Klee by more than two decades. There is a yacht club in one corner of the 24.5 x 19 inch map, and the courses are complicated by three islands and four banks of shoals.

While the basic mechanic is simple (roll two dice), the rules and subtleties do a good job of recreating the tensions of a sailboat race. A red die determines the basic movement amount, but this is modified by matching the red-white combination against a Help and Hindrance card that evens out the results. Net moves range from 0 (6-6=blown out a sail) to 5. Lower red rolls get help and higher ones get penalized.

Unlike later games, the wind is assumed to blow constantly from the top of the board, and courses are laid out accordingly. The rules and realities of sailing apply: a boat on starboard tack has right of way over port; close-hauled over reaching or running; getting to windward of another boat hurts its movement, and so on.

There are rules for tacking, luffing and setting spinnakers. There are shoals that players can try to get over but if their turn ends on a shoal they ground. There is an advanced start process too: instead of rolling for position with highest first, players can spend three turns manoeuvering for position as in a real race.

The rulebook has extensive diagrams of various potential situations, and is designed to make the game instructive as well as fun for players who are not sailors.