A Family Conundrum

G

Guest

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Take on a mistress/girlfriend. Take wife and one kid out first, then go back and take the other kid out. Leave them on the boat and go back to girlfriend, jump in the car and go for a dirty weekend. The wife can't get back becaue the dingy is still at the ramp. Send food out every few weeks.
 
G

Guest

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um. The wife/mistress won't work cos one ofthe children has been left alone.

solution 1 use a long line training out of the back of the dinghy to the shore, an pull the dinghy back.

2 . Or just go on the dinghy yourself first, and then pickup the rest of them from the fuel pontoon later.
 

steffen

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Guys, I think we are being had.
This ridle reminds me strongly of the one about the farmer with a tiger, a goat and a cabbage. He has to cross a canal with a boat that can taken only one of the three and the farmer himself.
If he leaves the tiger with the goat, the tiger will eat the goat.
If he leaves the goat with the cabbage, the goat will eat the cabbage.

Considering that it involves a boat it is suitable for this forum i think.

Have fun.
 

jollyjacktar

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Farmer, Fox, Goose and sack of Corn

I seem to remember a similar problem when I was a kid. A farmer had to ferry accross a river a fox, a goose and a sack of corn. He could only take one thing at a time and had to row the boat. He could npot leave the fox with the goose , or the goose with the corn. I can not remember how he did it, but he did do it and all without the aid of a long bit of string or the use of a toothbrush. Figure it out for yourself. Perhaps the sytem would work with your children as well.

However it seems that if the children can not be left alone then they had better stay home with the wife till they are older, or are taught some discipline or perhaps you or the wife or the children should take up swimming.
 

steffen

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Re: Farmer, Fox, Goose and sack of Corn

Jolly,
I love this; we came up with the same riddle in different version within 4 minutes of eachother.
Want to know the solution??
 
G

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Have the kids row you to the boat and then they return to collect the wife. Unless you're going to tell me they cant be left in the dinghy either in which case you're the kid of guy who keeps moving the goalposts.

Happy Xmas
 
G

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Re: fox etc..

take the fox and corn over, then take back corn, pick up goose. But this doen't help if the fox or goose can't be left alone
 

boatone

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Having posed the question, you seem to have sailed off into the wide blue yonder while the rest of us argue semantics about a solution to your problem!
Having examined the question more closely it seems to me that any good management consultant woiuld earn anopther couple of days fees clarifying the meaning of your original description.
Quote "neither of the two kids can be left ashore or on board alone" - does this mean they cant be left alone singular or plural? Can we leave them together at either end or can we not leave them alone at all together or singly? Can we let them loose in the dinghy together but without adult supervision?
Finally, (I think) you say the dinghy takes three safely AND a boat on a mooring - your words, not mine. Why on earth would you want to put a boat on a mooring in a dinghy? and if the dinghys big enough for that why cant it take the kids cos there must be room for them inside the boat?
Now then, wheres the scotch gone and wheres that new piccy of paulineb...........

TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com
 

DaveParry

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Astounded by the response! It was actually a semi-serious question which I was pondering the other day as we have a toddler already and a baby and a boat due very soon. Not to mention the managerie of foxes, lions and witches which I hadn't mentioned but you correctly guessed we had.

So far we've got...

Problem Avoidance:
Buy a bigger dinghy / change mooring / wife / kids

Lateral Thinking:
Tie a line to the dinghy to return it to the other parent ashore
Go aboard alone and pick the others up from a pontoon
Leave one child with a non-sailing adult ashore while you ferry the others out
Leave both on board / kids operate dinghy (too young in my case, but worth including for completeness)
Employ someone to ferry you out two by two

It just goes to show that the power of the forum can solve any problem! Are there any more solutions?...
 
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