Pirate Race
by Shorty
Routh
Object Of The Race
There are 3 bouys (or more) moored
out in the water, each one of them contains a stash of balls (all
balls in a bouy are colored alike). The goal is to get 3 balls
of the proper color, and to get back to the beach starting line
first. You can get balls by either sailing out to a bouy and pulling
one out, or by attacking another vessel.
Attacking Vessels
You can attack another vessel
by hitting it with a water balloon, or squirting it with a squirt
gun. The first vessel to hit the other is considered the winner
of the battle. The winner can then take a single ball from the
looser's vessel, but only if the winner needs that ball.
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Example 1 - Lets say
that the winner is has a red and white ball, and is looking
for a blue. If the looser has just a white ball, then the
winner can't take any balls from the looser.
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Example 2 - If the winner
has a red and blue ball, and the looser as a red and white
ball, then the winner can take the white ball from the looser,
and head back to the beach.
Re-Attacking Vessels
You are not allowed to re-attack
another vessel, until you have been in a battle with another vessel.
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Example
1 - Jason attacks and wins against Ken. After surrendering
his treasure, Ken is not allowed to attack Jason (yet). Jason
then moves on, and Ken goes and attacks Doug. After that battle,
Ken can then go back and attack Jason.
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Example
2 - Jason attacks and wins against Ken. They seperate, and
this time Jason goes and attacks Doug. Ken is not allowed
to attack Jason, but Jason can now head back and attack Ken.
And ofcourse Ken can defend himself, and if Ken hits Jason
with a waterballoon first, then Ken can take treasure from
Jason.
Starting The Race
This race is started from a beach,
or other stationay location where the crews are not in their boats.
When the start is signaled, everyone gets into their boats and
sails off.
Course Layout
You can be very creative with
the arrangement of the bouys. A typical arrangement is to have
them in a fan shape, so that from the beach, each bouy is an equal
distance to windward. With that arrangement, you can sail to the
middle and wait for sailors crossing to other bouys. Other ideas
are to put some bouys in the water, and some on land so you have
to get out and wade ashore.
Treasure Bouy
Each bouy should be marked with
the color of balls that is inside it. One simple bouy you could
make is a 5 gallon bucket with foam and ballast. You first pour
concrete into the bottom so that the bucket will always float
upright. Next you pour in expanding foam, so that the bucket will
float, even if swamped. A few holes drilled thru the sides of
the bucket just above the foam will let the water drain out. And
finally a hole should be cut in the lid that is big enough to
reach in and pull out a tennis ball.
For anchoring the bouys,
anything will do such as bricks. I made a simple set of mushroom
anchors by melting lead into tuna cans. There are a couple of
screws that come up thru the bottom to keep the lead in the can,
and a big eye bolt to tie the line to. I use these for the regular
race marks, and they seem to work good.
Rules
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Can only take a single ball from another
vessel, and only if you need that color of a ball
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You are not allowed to have more than
one ball of a color.
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Not allowed to "dump your treasure".
If you have a ball and are attacked, you must surrender it
immediately to the winning vessel.
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Not allowed to dump the bouy, or set balls
afloat.
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Not allowed to re-battle another vessel
until you have engaged in a battle with another vessel.
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No waterballoon sling shots (the big surgical
tubing shooter), it really hurts being hit with one of those.
Origin of this race
I was reading the book "Boats
With An Open Mind" by Phil Bolger, and in there
is a design called a pirate racer (14' long, 4' wide, double ended).
That boat was designed with a game in mind where boats race around
a course and use flags to indicate either a treasure ship, pirate,
or neutral. It sounded neat, but was a little complicated to understand,
so this is what I dreamed up. We first ran it with paddle boats
using the paddles as our attacking weapons, the first to touch
another's boat wins the battle. The person that won the game had
not visited a single bouy, he just attacked other vessels and
snuck back to the beach.
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