Cruising with Young children

[pandsrogers]

Hi, My wife and I have always dreamed of cruising and living aboard, however we have 4 young children and we have many quetions concerning the practicality, safety, accomendations (enough sleeping quarters) type of boat, etc.

If there are any families out there who would be willing to share your experieces with us, we would be very greatful.

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[sailormomma]

We liveaboard with our 2 kids, ages 2 1/2 and 4. We love our lifestyle and are amazed how the kids benefit from life on the water. Our plan is to cruise locally for 6 years and then take off to the South Pacific and beyond. Some of the many things we do to keep the kids safe are:

#1 at age 1 we purchased a good quality life jacket and they did not go on deck or on the docks without it.

#2 Safety netting around the life lines. It sure makes me feel more comfortable, too!

There is so much more that all parents have to deal with that I won't mention it. We haven't needed harnesses, just because our boat sails extremely gentle and we don't go out in extreme weather (yet).

Since we only have the 2 kids, I really don't know what it would be like with 4. Our boat would accomodate all your kids and then some, but it's a little difficult to handle with just my husband and myself. Especially when I'm usually taking care of the kids most of the time. It's getting easier as the kids are getting older. We have a Formosa 51 and it's so comfortable. It's a little big for me, since I have no prior sailing experience, but I'm getting more and more used to it. If you are inclined, please feel free to check out our website www.ghostsailors.com . Best wishes to you and your family. If you have any additional questions, I will do my best to answer.

Take care,

Angela

 

[Kangaloosh]

Hi, we have lived aboard for 5 years, we now have Poppy, born Feb 03, and Chiara, born Dec 04. Babies aboard are a piece of cake, toddlers more tricky. For lots of verbage about our experiences please see www.kangaloosh.com
Good luck.

 

[davidbains]

See http://www.noonsite.com/search?search_text=Kids
and http://www.kidsaboard.com/
In fact there are lots of sailing sites and many have ideas/advice for sailing with kids.
Basically you have to be firm about harnessess and buoyancy aids although the kids
may hate wearing them. My daughter would wear an aid while swimming but hated a harness on board. Four kids is a lot. Have you considered a cat for stability and space?

 

[mike_bryon]

Hi

We live aboard with four children (2 part-time, ages 12, 8, 6, 4) in a big boat with 5 cabins plus saloon and heads. The largest cabin is arranged as a playroom and everyone has their own space. The kids can play, watch a dvd etc and we still have the saloon or cockpit. This arrangement proved great through a UK winter, in warmer weather we could get by with less space.

We take crew when on a trip and make two cabins available by moving forward as a family. The crew includes a nanny/teacher (we ask a contribution to costs from the crew and pay the nanny) this approach has proved very successful as it allows my wife and I to sail together rather than one of us sailing and the other with the children. When on the move the nanny provides ‘school’ every morning. DK is a heavy boat and this helps everyone to remain comfortable in the occasional bit of strong weather. The children help each other and help keep an eye on the younger one.

We find the money for a marina berth for the winter and two summer months. The rest we sail or put her ashore. We know families who spend all year on a swinging mooring (no shore power, water tap, pontoon walk ashore) but we are not ready for that yet.

Before living aboard we sailed as a family so all the children were used to boats. They were all involved in the planning and helped decide which one to buy and where to be based.

We and the children love it and we have no regrets. I see no reason why it can not work with 4 fulltime children.

Best wishes with the plans.