Baby onboard

[StephenW]

Early next month will be the first time out for us as a family - new son 7 months. Any advice on safety/keepeing them occupied etc?

Strategy so far is we intend to keep him behind lee cloths when sailing (or strapped into a plastic "clamp-on" high chair extender and use the hich chair adapter as a seat in the cockpit when we stop using sail and motor when returning to mooring/marinas etc

Any idea as to whether this will work in practice. I'm sure he'll be fine as long as he can see what we're doing to occupy him

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[boatless]

Have a read of this...

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=ym&Number=480943&page=23&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&part=>http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=ym&Number=480943&page=23&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&part=</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

 

[homa]

Our boys are now 3yrs and 1yr old.
We had both onboard at an early age (2mths+).
Did mostly very short coastal hops and some overnight stops.
Most usefull bits of kit after a lifejacket was a second hand baby car seat - this is great in cockpit - seat can be lashed in companion way or on side bench in lee of spray hood. Baby can see everything that's going on and needs very little to keep occupied. as baby is secured with seat belt he can't fall out. Also useful for transfering baby one handed boat - tender (wearing lifejacket of course). Can also feed baby in car seat.
Other usefull item was a moses basket, this can be wedged in focsle or quarter berth when baby sleeps.
A baby onboard is quite simple to look after, ours seemed to eat & sleep a lot. It's when they start crawling, walking that things get interesting !
ENJOY...... they will....
homa

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[alahol2]

Carry cot in the quarterberth and don't forget the babybouncer off the boom (when moored!). Lots of food, lots of sleep. This is the easy bit...

<hr width=100% size=1>I really would rather be sailing...

 

[Redmond]

Ours is 4.5 months and has already been to cherbourg

We keep a moses basket and changing mat on board and transport him in a car seat. Haven't organised starpping the seat in the cockpit yet as we need to arrange a waterproof cover. We dangle the mobiles from the deckhead and the motion seems to help keep him entertained.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[samwise]

It's a while since ours were this size, but I concur with the car seat idea. We used ours extensively with the seat lashed in the cockpit sole and both lads seemed to enjoy it. It did -- I recall -- discourage short tacking! The best answer to the problem I saw was aboard a beautiful Broads cruiser being sailed quite vigorously with a gurgling baby strapped in a gimballed car seat fixed in the companionway.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[bedouin]

We are just starting our second season with a baby who as now progressed to the toddler stage. So far this year is proving much more challenging than last.

Last year we kept him in a Travel cot that was also designed to be used for car transport and so had proper attachments and a chest restraint. That kept him safe and happy all the time.

This year we have a car seat that we can also strap down safely in the cabin - which keeps him safe still but not as happy (as he wants to be out and playing). At the moment he is pretty demanding (at home as well as on the boat) so we have to regard looking after him as almost a full time task for one of us.

Unfortunately on our boat the lee cloths are not an appropriate restraint as they are too low to prevent him from climbing over them - I am considering the alternative of a netting screen across the entrance to the forepeak.

Our most successful purchase this season has been a booster high chair. This has a built in tray and is designed to be strapped onto a chair. This can be used strapped down in the cabin or in the cockpit.

What I am still looking for is a practical way of securing him in the cockpit underway. Car seats are great, but they take up too much space in our cockpit to be practical. Other devices such as the high chair attachment only have a basic waist-belt type harness so are not really appropriate when under sail. Any recommendations would be gratefully received!

Our most successful piece of equipment this year is

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[wiggy]

No real solutions but we did find that our one year old gets sea sick, boy was that fun!!!!!!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[freebird1]

I can't recall at what age i started doing this, but i bought a plastic moulded swing seat from ToysRus for £10. It was the moulded type with a fairly high back and leg holes in the front. It did only have a waist band, but with life jacket on, baby couldn't move much anyway! Always harnessed baby to boat anyway. Other advantage was that when in port, it could be lashed under the boom and guess what, a swing! I drilled some extra holes in the sides and matching holes at the edges of seats under bunk cushions down below so that i could fix it firmly next to the table for colouring on charts, eating log book etc. Those are the other loveable facets of baby on board..... Bed wise, started with a carry cot type thing, but lee clothes worked well a bit later on. I had a decent harness for them with screw- close hooks, but ended up making a much shorter one so that they could not get as far as falling over board. With two kids, hook them on at opposite ends of the cockpit (or whereever they are). You get less tangles and they can't reach the others hook to interfer with it.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[freebird1]

One last thought. If you get one of those older entirely polystyrene car seats they float UPSIDE DOWN with a baby strapped in. I tested it (with someone elses baby of course) but was glad i did. In the dingy i left them unstrapped in case of an accident, but life jacketed and tethered to me incase we went in the water. The metal framed charirs would probably sink so i would do the same with them too.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[bedouin]

Thanks for the ideas - I have been thinking about a swing - B&Q have started doing one with shoulder straps that looks pretty good so I will probably get one of those and see if it can be adapted.

At the moment we don't put his lifejacket on when he is in the cockpit as I have difficulty imagining any circumstances in which it may be necessary (at the moment he is not allowed in the cockpit when we are flying the kite because we do not have adequate restraint in the case of a broach.)

We usually transport him too/from the boat in a Karrimor Backpack (we have a ferry service to the mooring) - I certainly wouldn't strap him in the car seat in a dinghy!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Allegro]

A few ideas. We currently sail with a 2.5 year old and a 9 month old. Both of them have come with us since a few months old. They are a fairly full time job - one of us pretty much just looks after the kids while the other singlehands. A few issues we've come across...

Sailing style - we've kept it to short hops when the kids are aboard, anything more than 2-3 hours sailing we've tended to find leads to increasingly stressed parents as the kids want a change of scenery. Where we've wanted to go further afield than that allows I've spent a day "delivering" the boat on my own and Lisa's driven down with the children, then we've spent some days exploring the new place in short hops.

Sleeping - started with Emily on a Corribee, and found the most secure place for her to sleep was on the floor! We cut some 3" foam to fit the cabin "footwell" and that was her mattress. We slept better knowing there was nowhere for her to fall. We've moved up in size a little now, and have the luxury of a separate forecabin for the two of them, but have infilled the gap between the vee berths so that the whole cabin, once the door is closed, is a bed, again with nowhere to fall.

Lifejackets - we never found anything suitable for less than 6 months, and contented ourselves with strapping them to one of us in a carrier. Never totally convinced of the safety of that, but didn't find a better solution. The smallest crewsaver lifejacket fitted both of them from about 6 months on, and the integral harness is well worth having.

In the cockpit - well, actually, apart from a bit of fun swinging the car seat from the backstay, we've tended to just let them potter about or sit in a corner or on a lap. Below about a year they're not mobile enough to go anywhere worrying, and the cockpit seats are just the right height for them to stand in the footwell and play with something on the seat. A bowl of water and assorted plastic cups has provided reasonably good entertainment. That said, they do also start wanting to climb!

As Emily's got older she's been wanting to join in a bit - sweet things like pulling on ropes, using a torch as a handbearing compass but also less endearing things like disengaging the autopilot in a narrow channel! We've recently used a tip of Libby Purves' to keep her occupied with some success - towing, pulling in and throwing over again an empty coke bottle on a piece of string is something she will do for a good half hour. Other than that, colouring books, sticker books, I spy books, singing, eating and sleeping have been our standby amusements. When younger a few soft toys, board books, and again songs, food and sleep were the key when underway. It is worth trying to time trips so that they are asleep for at least part of it - unless you find you need the early-afternoon nap yourself to recover from the night!

Good luck - we've found its been good fun, but it has changed our sailing style. Oh, and it is completely exhausting!!

Cheers
Patrick

<hr width=100% size=1>Sailing a Victoire 25 on the Scottish West Coast