s can play boatball and, best of all, you play in the water. First you will need a life preserver for each person playing. We use these to float in the field. Typically we ride these like a saddle by turning them upside down and floating on them.You will also need a wiffel bat (a hollow plastic bat), wiffel ball (light plastic ball), and one boat. It is important that you pick a wiffel ball and bat that floats. Don't pick a wiffel ball that has a lot of holes in it or you will have a very short game of boatball. Usually Dollar Store (the shop of first resort for all consumables on our boat) has the best selection. If you have aspirations for a scholarship to Annapolis for boat ball you might be better off purchasing high end equipment at some place like WalMart or Toys R US.
The rules are simple. First anchor the boat in water deeper than 6' and turn off the engine. One person is the batter. Everyone else is in the field. The person that is at bat floats on their life preserver in front a towel hung from the lifeline (home plate). Preferably
home plate is @ 3/4 down the boat from the bow (Just to clarify - closer to the stern than the bow).From home plate you have first base (if the batter touches the stern of the boat and they get a single), second base (if the batter touches the bow of the boat and they get a double), third base (if the batter touches the anchor line they get a triple), and a home run (if the batter swims all the way around the boat and gets back to home plate they get a home run. The batter has to make up his mind which way they want to swim and get there before someone in the field gets to the ball, retrieves it. and hits the boat with the ball (they actually have to hit the boat with the ball - I can't tell you how many times someone has thrown the ball over the boat).
In the field there is a pitcher and everyone else is a fielder. The pitcher pitches the ball to the batter. Don't go crazy with pitching. Most of the time we don't keep track of strikes. When the batter hits the ball they have a decision to make. They can go toward the stern for an easy single or they can head for the bow for more bases. Remember if they go for a home run they will be behind the boat for approximately half the time and will not know the status of the ball (also it is a really long way!!!). It is perfectly acceptable if you start for a base and have not touched it to change your mind and go for another. This typically happens when someone misses the boat when throwing the ball.
When the batter gets to a base he establishes a ghost man (they must yell "Ghost man on [name of the base]. For instance they yell "GHOST MAN ON SECOND". They can then go back to bat again. In order for a ghost man to score someone has to push them over home plate. This can either be the batter, like what happens if the next hit is a home run, or it can be another ghost man, for example a ghost man on second only moves to thrid when the batter hits a subsequent double.
The batting order is established by time honored methods. It can either be youngest to oldest or the fistual double elimination selection method (eni, mini, might, moe). We typically allow two outs per batter (the inning gets long with three outs). We also establish a max runs per inning (usually 5). You can play until everyone has had X number of times at bat or to a max total score. You can take breaks when playing boatball after all they have a seventh inning streatch in baseball.
You will learn a couple of things playing boatball - the water line really needs to be scrubbed, it is a long way to the bow of the boat when you are swimming as fast as you can, it is amazing how tired you get floating around all day with intermittent amounts of effort, and it is amazing how good the food is after playing several hours of boat ball.
The most important rule is - have fun.
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