This is a game from my childhood, and later when visiting my parents with our children we would play this game called Sjoelbak, otherwise known as Dutch Shuffleboard.
There was a lot of good natured rivalry between all my brothers and sisters and I was more than excited when my Dad gave us our very own Sjoelbak for Christmas, just a year before he passed away, so we could play it with our boys and girl and hopefully keep the tradition going.
Let me first say these boards are hand made mostly from oak and buffed to a shiny gloss finish with oil. It is large and a bit of a challenge to store as it is 6-1/2 foot long and 17 inches wide. It is best to store it verticaly so I keep it propped up in the spare bedroom where it is out of the way. Keeping it in a humid area could warp the board so keep that in mind. This game comes with a box of 30 discs to play the game with. These discs, made of beechwood, have a small concave shape to them so they slide smoothly down the board. The longer you play, the faster they will slide.
There are 4 slots, each is worth 1, 2, 3 and 4 points for a total of 10 points. If you look at the closup picture you can see slot #1 on the left is worth 1 point, the next 4 points, then 3 points and the last one on the right 2 points. These are marked on the board with brass decorative tacks. Each player get 3 tries per round to score 30 discs by sliding them through the slots in the board. If you are lucky and get two in each slot your points double to 20 and on the third try your total could be 49.
On each round the discs that did not go through the slots and score are used again until your 3 attempts are used up and you tally up your score. You can play individually, in teams (like brothers again sisters) and so on until everyone has finished and the highest score wins.
These Sjoelbak sets are imported from the Netherlands and sold here at Dutch Import stores. I'm sure you would not have a problem finding a store that would ship one if there was not one in your area. This is a great family game, lots of strategy and rivalry to see who scores and ends up the winner!
What an awesome time to see the rivalry between the parents and children.When my family moved to Canada 50 years ago, we made sure we brought our sjoelbak
(shuffleboard) with us. Given the cold, snowy winters we
encountered here it was a wise decision as we passed many
cold evenings playing shuffleboard with family and friends.
Having had to finally retire our 'family' game, we started
make new ones using the lines and measurements of the
shuffleboard we brought with us so many years ago.
Because you can choose to play with as many people as you
want, this is not only a great family game but also perfect
for evenings in with a group of your friends.
