Family Sailing

Karen,

If you make it fun, interesting and let them get involved, then you've a fair chance that they'll love it....

I reckon that two enthusiastic parents will help, but as Bernie has highlighted above, you can't always win, and will just have to go with the flow....

On the positive side, until they get to about 15, they have little choice but to follow their parents around, so you've got a good few years to worry about it yet!
 
i think that i left it all too late,my wife and daughters are equstrians and find that much more enjoyable than sailing,my son loves water sports but finds that on days when i sail,the wind is just right for him to go kite surfing with his GF.

S its singlehandling for me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
We didn't get a boat until my son was nine. But I had laid the seeds much earlier by reading Mr Ransom's Swallows and Amazon series at bed times from the age of seven.
Followed that with a sailing course in Optimists on the duck pond at Eastbourne when he was eight.
He is now happy to go sailing with me for a weekend, though will often retreat to the cabin to read.
My wife doesn't like doing tippy-uppy-flappy-sailly stuff, so its often a boy's weekend.


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[ QUOTE ]
We didn't get a boat until my son was nine. But I had laid the seeds much earlier by reading Mr Ransom's Swallows and Amazon series at bed times from the age of seven.

[/ QUOTE ]Maybe thats the secret!.... both mine had the entire Arthur Ransome series read to them from an early age too!
 
I am so glad my wife produced number 4 as a boy, the three girls barely tolerated the boat when they were young, just like mum!

What got the son hooked was all the old leaky boats we seemed to spend our life trying to salvage, and we spent many happy weekends in yards before we finally got afloat.

Now I am into plastic, and son comes over with his children and family, and even the girls have come back with their children, so over the long term at least they understand the fascination for me, and I get to "indoctrinate" the new bunch of littlies!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Karen,

If you make it fun, interesting and let them get involved, then you've a fair chance that they'll love it....

I reckon that two enthusiastic parents will help, but as Bernie has highlighted above, you can't always win, and will just have to go with the flow....

On the positive side, until they get to about 15, they have little choice but to follow their parents around, so you've got a good few years to worry about it yet!

[/ QUOTE ]

Neil,

If we can do half as good a job as you we'll be more than happy.
 
SWMBO loves sailing but we didn't get a boat until darling daughter was 14. She and her best friend rate a boat by the sunbathing space available would love a stinkpot (well, they are children!) They disappear below as soon as the sails go up and have no interest whatsoever. I wish we'd been able to bring her up with sailing but it's to late now.

At least now she's 17 we can leave her behind.
 
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