Host kit · 10–14 players · 3.5 hours

The Midnight Regatta: the whole evening.

A free sample: the host guide, the invitation to send, the first prop, and the opening act of the player scripts. Everything else — the other acts, the words you say aloud and the sealed solution — unlocks with the paid kit below.

Back to the kit

The Velamina was built to win the regatta and her owner, Sir Alan Ward, was built to remind everyone of it. He is found at the helm with the sails still full and the coast guard nine hours away. The crew, the rival skipper and the guests below deck all have a story, and the tide will not let any of them leave until morning.

Before the night

Print four to six character booklets depending on your table, and consider giving the skipper to the guest who likes being in charge of the room.
Set the table as the saloon: one long surface, a chart laid flat at the end, and every glass tied to a string 'so nothing goes over the side'.
Fill a spritzer with water and salt for sea air, and put a torch in a drawer for the storm warning in Act II — you will switch off the main lights for ninety seconds.
Lay the chart, the life ring and the bill of sale where the prop sheet says. The life ring with the wrong boat's name is the clue most tables miss.

Running order

6:45 pmBoarding

Hand each guest a boarding card with their berth number on it and send them to the saloon. Serve something cold and salty.

7:00 pmAct I — Boarding

Read the welcome, then the owner's announcement that the boat is sold. Let the argument run for five minutes before calling the act closed.

7:40 pmDinner

Serve the main course now. Act II lands better on a full table and an empty bottle.

7:55 pmAct II — The Helm

Cut the lights, play a storm sound on your phone for ninety seconds, then announce the body. Hand out the evidence envelopes as the lights come back.

9:00 pmAct III — Making Port

Run the accusation round, then read the solution as the marina lights come up — a lamp switched on at the end of the room is enough.

9:30 pmAshore

Hand the guilty guest the confession card and let them explain themselves. Then open the windows; every table needs air by this point.

Seating

Seat the skipper at one end and the rival owner at the other, with the secretary between them and the boatbuilder beside whoever is most likely to ask technical questions. If you have more than eight guests, give the extra players 'crew' name cards and let them sit in pairs.

If it goes wrong

If nobody finds the bill of sale, have the chef bring it in with the dessert and say it was in the galley.
If two guests start arguing out of character, break the scene: 'The wind drops. Everyone hears the same thing.' Then ask the quietest guest a direct question.
If a guest refuses to accuse anyone, ask them for the piece of evidence they trust least instead. That is always enough to restart the round.

After the night

Keep the chart — it is the prop guests ask to take home. Everything else goes back in the box for the next table.

Send this

The Velamina sails at seven. The owner will not be joining us for breakfast.

Sir Alan Ward requests the pleasure of your company aboard the Velamina for the final night of the Portofino regatta. Tender leaves the marina steps at six forty-five; latecomers swim.

Dinner will be served at anchor. Dress for the weather and for photographs — there will be a photographer, and the owner intends to be in every frame.

One request: come as your character, not yourself. The crew have been told to address you by the name on your boarding card.

Reply to the Ward estate office by Thursday. Berths are limited to the guest list and the guest list is final.

If you send it digitally

Send it as a boarding card: name, berth number, and the three paragraphs, with a small anchor mark at the corner. Ask guests to bring a coat they do not mind ruining.

Three physical props carry this story. Each one is buildable in under half an hour with things you probably already have.

Prop 01 · 25 minutes

The altered chart

Places a rendezvous nobody admits to, and puts two guests in the same lie.

What you need

A printed nautical chart or a large sheet of blue-grey paper
A red grease pencil or crayon
A ruler
Clear tape

How to make it

Lay the chart flat and mark the marina, the anchorage and one small cove with a pencil.
Draw a course in red from the anchorage to the cove, then add a cross and the time 11.40 pm beside it.
Write 'rendezvous' in a handwriting that is not yours — try writing with your other hand for a looser, more hurried line.
Tape the chart to the table at the end of the room and crease one corner hard so it looks folded and carried.

Sealed in the paid kit

The other 2 props

The remaining build sheets: materials lists, cutting guides and the folds that make them convincing by candlelight.

Unlock the full kit — $38

Print one booklet per guest from these pages. Each act has a line to read aloud and a secret for that character alone — the lines are what the table hears, the secrets are why they lie.

Act I · 7:00 pm

Boarding

Host: Welcome the table aboard, read the owner's announcement, then have each guest read their first page in turn. End the act on the slam of the saloon door.

Captain Elias Rourke

The skipper

Thirty years on this coast and I have never lost a race I cared about. Sir Alan cares about all of them, which is why we are still at anchor when we should be in the harbour.

Only you know You have been offered the skipper's job on the Marchesa's boat for next season, and you accepted it in writing two weeks ago.

Marchesa Livia Falco

The rival owner

I came to buy the Velamina and I am not accustomed to being kept waiting on the water. If Alan will not sell, I will simply beat him in the morning and buy the wreck in the afternoon.

Only you know You did not come to buy the boat. You came to collect a debt Alan owes your family, and you brought a document he has been avoiding signing for a year.

Nico Bernard

The boatbuilder

I built her ribs with my own hands and I know every plank that has been replaced since. Some of them were replaced cheaply, and one of them was replaced last week without my being told.

Only you know You discovered that the keel bolts were replaced with undersized stock on Alan's orders, and you have the receipt to prove who supplied them.

Celia Ward

The owner's secretary

I keep the accounts, the schedule and the guest list, and I have a suitcase packed by the door because I have been resigning for eleven months.

Only you know You have been quietly moving money out of the estate for two years, and Alan found the second ledger this afternoon.

Sealed in the paid kit

The other 2 acts

Every remaining character script, the line they read and the secret they are protecting, laid out to print and fold into booklets.

Unlock the full kit — $38

The welcome

“Welcome aboard the Velamina. The tender leaves at six forty-five, dinner is at anchor, and the owner has an announcement he would like to make before the first course. Please keep to your berths and please do not touch the sails — the skipper has strong views and a louder voice.”

Sealed in the paid kit

The dinner toast and the accusation

The two speeches that open the second half and close the night, with the cue for when to stand up and how to hand over the confession.

Unlock the full kit — $38

Host’s eyes only

The culprit, the method, and how the clues fit

The solution never appears on this page. It arrives with the paid kit, sealed, to be read aloud only after every guest has accused.

Unlock the full kit — $38

Unlock

Everything, printed.

What you have just read is the sample. One payment unlocks the whole kit on this page — every act, the props, the speeches and the solution — ready to print the moment the card clears.

3 acts of player scripts, one booklet per guest
3 prop build sheets
The dinner toast, the accusation and the cue list
The sealed solution, for the host only

One payment, one kit, yours to print again for the next party. Bought it already? Open the printable kit.