@Alpha_Werewolves and anyone who struggled with the race: hello, I’m not sure if the boat race is still giving you a hard time. But, luckily, I emailed CoG my receipt of the game, which gave me access to Ho’s code. I’ll leave behind a guide of the main forks of the race, for you and anyone that might want to see them. Most of the checks are two stats put together (like Bold + Skullduggery, Persuade + Observe and so on), and I’m mostly going to focus on how much you’d need to get the best result.
But, don’t worry, you can still sail your way to victory (or adequate win) by having a little less than the optimal. There’s no need to min-max the best character for it, and doing something good at the start of the race (and using Glenna’s herbs) can give you quite a boost. The guide is just here to show what you what each choice is technically testing. Since the code is long and I trust you gus to pick on what I mean, a few of these are very general explanations of the choices or the stats needed for them. Plenty of paths in the middle fork lead to the same decision where the MC chooses how to handle the police boat after dealing with the Ragamuffins, for example.
Left path: Col. Firesnuff
Branch 1: “I leap over to the Firesnuff and address Col. Firesnuff directly”
Choice 1: “I remind him that the only ones…” (Intellect > 65 and Persuade > 40)
Choice 2: “I stand next to him and consider the battle…” (Intellect + Observe > 120)*
Choice 3: “I’ll push him into the river” (Firesnuff rep > 50 and Abrasive >= 75)**
Branch 2: “I shout for the intervention of the referees” (Renown needs to be bigger than your Suspicion + 20)
Branch 3: Challenge Jabs to single combat
Choice 1: “I attempt to get Jabs to join…” (Persuade + Jabs rep > 120)
Choice 2: “I surrender” (uh… I think you do surrender, and it hurts your team)
Choice 3: Fight Jabs. You win ideally with 70 Bold, and no problems with it. If you have 60, but no 70, the game gives you other chances to take her out: using an illegal move (skullduggery >40), getting help from Frankincense or Rory if they are your partner on the race, or flinging your oar-javelin at her (observe > 50). You can also surrender, if you want to.
*Makes the other rower (Rory, Frankincense, Valentine or Haze) pretty upset with you.
** These lead into different choices, but, with the ideal combo I put above, all of them should work out, I think.
Middle path: The police boat
Part 1: the start.
Choice 1: “I try to reason with the Ragamuffins” (Persuade > 50)
Choice 2: “I pick up a bran muffin” (Bold > 50)
Choice 3: “I try to redirect their wrath” (Skullduggery > 50)
Part 2: the Ragamuffins.
Choice 1: “We must escape at once!” (BoatTough + Bold > 130)
Choice 2: “We must helt the police!” (Observe > 65)
Choice 3: “We must negotiate with The Baker!” (forks into a whole new sub-section)
Part 3: Negotiating with The Baker
Choice 3.1: “You have defeated us” (Skullduggery + Persuade > 120)
Choice 3.2: This one is actually various choices that work similarly. I won’t go into detail, but they all work the same way: if you got the medallion with Haze, you can trade that for safe passage, you can promise the medallion if you don’t have it yet. I think you can also give them Frankincense’s pets too. In all of these, you can offer that stuff as a gift from you and the police, let the police deal with the Ragamuffins themselves or give your boat a head start.
Choice 3.3: “I wish to undergo The Proving”. There’s a whole sub-section about The Proving, too. But, to put it in broad strokes: you can “gorge myself silly” with 60 Bold, realize that the word “consume” has many meanings with 55 Intellect or invite the gang to eat with you in the spirit of fellowship (55 Culture). Like before, you’ll be able to decide the fate of the police’s boat if you get crowned Champion.
Right path: The Cordwainers
Part 1: the start, well, of this fork.
Choice 1: “It would be impolite…” (forks into another path)
Choice 1.1: “It would be bad manners…” (Culture > 70, but you can do it with Culture > 55)
Choice 1.2: “I turn to…” (Soothing > 80)
Choice 1.3: “I embark on a clever speech…” (Intellect > 75)
Choice 2: “I… must resist” (forks into another section)
Choice 2.1: “I attempt to physically pull my crew…” (Bold > 75)
Choice 2.2: “I reason with my crew…” (Persuade > 75)
Choice 2.3: “I destroy the plants and mushrooms…” (Observe > 75)
Choice 3: “I have to help the Cordwainers…” (forks into another path)
Choice 3.1: “I try to inspire the Cordwainers…” (Intellect + Persuade > 130)
Choice 3.2: “I make them angry at me…” (Soothing < 25 and Skullduggery >= 45)
Choice 3.3: “I destroy the plants and mushrooms around them” (Observe > 75, it leads back to choice 2.3)
Part 2: the vision
Choice 1: "I try to focus on what is true here and what is not" (needs Renown > 70 for this one)
Choice 2: "I clear my mind entirely and find a still place within myself" (you need Tranquility > 70 for this one. It's certainly a tough check. You'd need to ace through plenty of situations in the game for this one).
Choice 3: "I try to follow the voice out of this maze" (for this one to work ideally, you need to have more than 70 relationship with whomever you chose at the start of the festival. So if you're rowing with Haze, you need their rep to be more than 70, same with Rory, and so on and so on)
Choice 4: "Love will save me from this maze" (I think you need to bring your romance along with you, and it's done)
Choice 5: "I don't know how to get out" (In true Ho! fashion, you get a choice that allows you to fail. In this case, you lose a "vision" point, which brings disadvantages to you later into the right path.
Aaaand I think those are all the forks. I had to go through plenty of code to build this little guide, so there might be some parts of it that are dificult to read or just plain confusing. In that case, or if I got something wrong, feel free to point it out and I’ll edit it. Or, if you’re a mod, just feel free to polish my post if you like.