Good boat jobs for 10 year olds

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Swanrad2

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I have two kids - the older is 13 and approximately bilge/cockpit locker/engine bay sized. Being 13 he is also capable of doing up bolts and other simple mechanical stuff. Very handy thing to have around.

The younger is 10 and, although smaller, is also less competent. I am keen to involve him in the winter boaty work - otherwise I'll have to do something like LaserQuest or Pixar movie. Has anyone a list of useful applications for such a thing?
 
Cleaning and polishing? My daughter always loved getting involved with painting although, to be fair, her enthusiasm always waned after about 30 seconds of actually doing it.
 
I don't have kids, but if I did, I'm guessing rebuilding the heads pump, sanding antifouling, painting underneath the cockpit sole, antifouling between bilge keels and de-greasing the engine room should keep them busy for a while...:encouragement:
 
My "kid" is 45 and my long term memory is weakening but put the young one securely in a bosuns chair and hoist to cross trees. The job is to ward off roosting birds and spy out the land for flying pigs and pink elephants! May keep him/her quiet for 2 or even 3 minutes! The concentration span of a young child is even shorter than my memory span! Washing down the deck with a pressure washer is always good fun except for passers by!

You yourself will probably get nothing useful completed but your wife will have a quiet afternoon to go shopping!

Best of luck!
 
Teach the 13 year old how to change the impeller and how to clear weed from the raw water filter. He will probably enjoy doing those jobs, and it might enable you to keep control of the boat whilst he does one "for real" one day.
 
Small is good. I used one of my daughters, then aged about 5 or 6, to wriggle through the spaces in lockers when rewiring, aged 8 she got into the engine bay to fit the pipework on a calorifier, she then graduated to the bosuns chair and has made a good deal of money over the years based on her willingness to be hauled up tall masts to retrieve lines, photograph dodgy fittings, change bulbs etc etc.
 
Thinking of boys being used to sweep chimneys, one of my earliest memories was having to enter our house through the coal-hole when my Mum and Dad managed to lose their keys. I suppose I was 4 or 5 at the time - I remember it was a big adventure for me! Down the grating in the pavement outside the house, into the coal-cellar and out through the kitchen to the back door.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Thinking of boys being used to sweep chimneys, one of my earliest memories was having to enter our house through the coal-hole when my Mum and Dad managed to lose their keys. I suppose I was 4 or 5 at the time - I remember it was a big adventure for me! Down the grating in the pavement outside the house, into the coal-cellar and out through the kitchen to the back door.
Click to expand...

Heh. Aged 20 or so, I did something similar through the beer-delivery hatch of the Warwick University Students' Union, having previously been ejected for being more than usually drunk :)

Pete
 
Swanrad2 said:
I have two kids - the older is 13 and approximately bilge/cockpit locker/engine bay sized. Being 13 he is also capable of doing up bolts and other simple mechanical stuff. Very handy thing to have around.

The younger is 10 and, although smaller, is also less competent. I am keen to involve him in the winter boaty work - otherwise I'll have to do something like LaserQuest or Pixar movie. Has anyone a list of useful applications for such a thing?
Click to expand...

I recall "making use" of my son aged about 10 to climb/reach over the fuel tank to get to a fixing, he'd never get there now.
last year he was up the mast (for 3hrs!) helping to replace the masthead wire, but he's a bit heavier now in his mid20's, ( not a lot though).

Mrs chewi was unimpressed when I considered dropping his little sister down a mates well (in a bosuns chair!) to retrieve something or other.
 
My 8 year old can fit in the lazarette, so I can use him to check for gas leaks - they're more resilient than canaries!

More seriously, if they're anything like mine, they'll need very short jobs with instant gratification. If mine are feeling helpful, I usually give them things to dismantle (having first loosened the fasteners slightly). It's not very productive though. Fetching and carrying or holding inspection lights is something they can do for short periods. My 8 and 10 year old spent a happy (and vaguely useful) time stretching the anchor chain and warp out across the drive in lengths to air it and make sure all the marker cable ties were on it at the right distances apart. Similarly, sorting mooring lines (and coiling them with various degrees of success) kept them happy for a short while.
 
I spent a lot of time over the years standing next to Dad doing a job, on call to hold something or pass a tool. I probably learned a fair bit by osmosis, but I remember it being quite boring, so this isn't a recommendation :)

Pete
 
Joking aside - which I half was when I bought the original post - I have now spent the day thinking about it. I'm going to buy a 12v 'car polisher' and set him loose on the hull (having tried it out myself first), I think the jetwash will keep him happy for half an hour (since the tight gits at the yard started charging 20p for five minutes of water - IN WALES! - that'll cost a fortune)' brasso on the chrome bits and I really liked the suggestion about kids, canaries and chimneys.
 
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