Sails Up! – Boat Racing is on a Roll

Before the sailboat race begins, the harbor is alive with anticipation. Dozens of brightly colored sails flutter in the morning breeze as crews make final adjustments to their boats. The sailors look across the harbor at their competitors and carefully reach down… and grab their dice? Sails Up! is a dice-rolling boat-racing game for two players created by Sandra & Bannon Lynott and published by Lynott Ventures. A quick boat race will take about 20 minutes.

Setup

Setup in Sails Up! is simple. Place the board between both players. Choose a color and take your seven boats. Flip the wind token to determine the wind direction. Finally, both players roll the three dice, and whoever gets the higher total goes first. That’s it!

Gameplay

In Sails Up!, your goal is to get all seven of your boats across the finish line. To do this, you’ll need to have your boats traverse the length of the board twice. You’ll travel up the outside lane of the board first, then come back down the (shared) middle.

Sails Up! is, at its simplest, a roll-and-move game. On your turn roll the three six-sided dice. These aren’t your typical dice; each has two faces each of 0, 1, and 2. You must apply the entire move to a single boat, but you can choose which boat to use. To start, you’ll begin one of your boats up your side of the board. After moving up the eight spaces to turn the corner you’ll sail down the shared center of the board to the finish line.

Players can have as many of their boats in the race at a time. But there are only sixteen spots your boats can be on! Too many and you’ll start gumming up the works; boats can’t share spaces. So choose carefully when you roll. Do you want to start another boat off, or continue making progress with a boat that’s already in the race?

You also need the correct die roll to just cross the finish line. If you get too close you may have to hope for a one or two! Having a few boats in the race gives you options on how to use your dice.

Don’t Forget your Opponent!

But remember, this is a boat race against an opponent. There’s two ways players can affect each other. First, if a player moves onto a space with your boat, your boat gets pushed back to the closest available harbor. If the harbor spaces are full, you have to pull your boat off the board!

Second, if you move your boat into a space immediately alongside one of your opponent’s boats, you tie-up their boat! Place it on its side. It can’t move until you move your boat again, or they manage to roll a zero or a six. They can use that roll to “untie” their boat.

We mentioned harbors. Harbors protect boats from opponents. If you land on a harbor spot, your boat is safe should an opponent land in an adjacent space. You also can’t displace an opponent from a harbor – that space is blocked.

Win With the Wind at your Back!

The other icon on the board is the wind icon. If your die roll allows you to move one of your boats onto a wind icon, and you’re sailing in the direction of the wind, take another turn! These can stack, too! If you have a few boats on the map you could take a few turns in a row. This is a great way to get ahead!

The winner is the first player to get all seven of their boats across the finish line. Happy sailing!

Impressions

We were pleasantly surprised with Sails Up!. This quick, two-player game seemed at first to be a fairly rote roll-and-move. But it became evident quickly there were some light strategy touches as you understand the game flow a little better. Make no mistake, Sails Up! is a light game, but this weight is perfect for a light game while waiting for food, a filler game between two heavier games, or maybe even something to play while you’re waiting for the rest of your game group to arrive.

The primary movement mechanics of Sails Up! require dice, so it’s obvious there’s a fair amount of chance here, as well. But there is plenty of decision space in this game. You have the ability to move up to seven boats at a time through the sixteen spaces.

The Wind Goes Both Ways

The wind icons show up at intervals of three, which is a common with dice that have 0-2 on them. This means there are ample opportunities for doubling up your moves, adding a little dash of excitement with each play.

While the wind token is a neat feature for the game, it got stale as something that never changed. We used it as a kind of catch-up mechanic when we played. If a player moved a boat over the finish line and they were behind, they could change the wind direction if they wanted to. A little more interest around this mechanic would be welcome. Note: there are some other variations briefly mentioned on the back page of the rulebook.

This is Lynott Ventures first and only game, and they struck a nice balance between light strategy and chance. Sails Up! is a game that’s a nice, fun, casual back-and-forth.

We’ll see you on the water!

You can pick up your own copy of Sails Up! for only $20 at https://www.sailsupgame.com/.

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Lynott Ventures provided The Family Gamers with a promotional copy of Sails Up! for this review.