In Whirlpools and Lifebelts (2016), an original board game by Cally Trench, the aim is to bring your family of five people from their dangerous Homeland to the Island of Safety. All players are in play simultaneously, and the game is punctuated by sound as players recite appropriate words when a member of their family drowns or reaches safety. The border shuts when seven people have reached the Island of Safety.

The game is essentially a race, but the recitations by the other players make you aware of their loses and successes. Whatever your intellectual position on migration, you will feel an intense desire to get your family to the Island of Safety; the game bypasses the intellect and engages you emotionally. I cannot remember an occasion on which all five members of a family were saved; you might consider that you have won if you have saved more of your family than the other players - but at what cost?

Cally Trench: I believe that board games are a way for people to engage with what distresses us. In general, players willingly suspend disbelief and play in earnest; board games seem to bypass the intellect and engage people directly at an emotional level. My board games highlight moral and ethical problems while not suggesting solutions.

Whirlpools and Lifebelts was first played at Homunculus, an exhibition in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by mass migration, curated by Rekha Sameer at Asylum, London (on 17th January 2016).

Whirlpools and Lifebelts was also played at an OVADA Stammtisch at Joe Perks & Co, Oxford (on 24th November 2016); at Cally Trench's Board Games at the Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading (on 4th February 2017), and at Festal Favours (on 10th June 2017), curated by Clare Carswell as part of Charlbury Festival.

Whirlpools and Lifebelts was also played at two Cally's Board Game Evenings at Wycombe Museum (on 15th February and 25th October 2018); and at Cally Trench's Original Board Games (on 22nd September 2018) at The Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney, during the exhibition Nick Trench / Cally Trench: Siblings Cannot Agree.

Whirlpools and Lifebelts was also played at Elisabetta Balasso / Cally Trench: Original Board and Card Games at OpenHand OpenSpace, Reading (on 7th September 2019); and at the In Dialogue conference at Déda, Derby (on 19th November 2019), convened by Heather Connelly and Rhiannon Jones.

Whirlpools and Lifebelts was included in an International Women's Day iteration of the regular Bucks Board Games session at Wycombe Arts Centre (on 8th March 2022). It was also played at Cally Trench's Original Board Games at Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot (on 8th October 2022) during the exhibition Tineke Bruijnzeels / Cally Trench: Exploring inside the box.