help am new to this

[shellanne]

Have always hated water and been been with partner for eight years and only this year after he did the round the island race finally had courage to get on board so to speak we had a weekend sailing out of sparkes marina on a cape cutter 19 and loved it and want more preferably a bigger boat so we can take the kids any ideas anyone

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[bigmart]

You'll have to give more info than this. How many kids? How Old Kids & you?
What type of Sailing are you interested in? From what you say I presume you are particularly interested in the Solent? What Budget do you have? Etc.

I am sure you will get plenty of advice but give us something to work with.

Martin

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[Vid]

If your partner has dayskipper then start off with a charter - preferably somewhere warm and sunny - that should convince you and the kids! Wouldn't recommend a wet, cold autumn trip as a second trip. Probably a bit soon to rush into boat ownership at this stage...

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[shellanne]

thanks we had a great weekend sailing out of sparkes last weekend in august was a bit scared as on the friday it was pouring with rain and cold but got there and had sun all sat and sun and fell in love with it just need advice on where we can hire a boat


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[shellanne]

sorry like i say am new to this other half has his day skipper and yacht master (sorry bad spelling am tired) and kids are 4 and 9 and love water can u help

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[Vid]

Treat yourself to a copy of Yachting Monthly and look at the charter adverts in the back - lots of ideas there.

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[bigmart]

I bought my first boat when my kids were the age of yours. The first trips I took them on were at Easter. This is a little early for young kids. You need to establish some rules with them early on.

My kids were not allowed to emerge from the cabin without a harness clipped onto the boat & wore lifijackets at all times. It may seem over the top but it gets them into a way of thinking safety.

The best timesof year to take the kids is May to the end of August.

To give them something to do while sailing I find towing a fishing line a good distraction.

Kid friendly ports are few & far between. Mine enjoyed Brighton, Bembridge, Ryde (Right next door to Fun Fair) & Cowes. East Head in Chichester Harbour is excellent (watch out for strong tides).

As to boat that really depends on your budget & the type of sailing you want to do. I like a Bilge Keeler for creek crawling but others may differ.

Hope that helps.

Martin

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[oldharry]

Problem here is that what you are asking is a bit like saying 'I have just passed my driving test, and want a bigger faster car, what should I get?'

There is even more variety in boats than there is in cars, so to start you have to look at basics. The bottom line is 'how much can I afford to spend'. That narrows the choice to a slightly more manageable range. Next, what kind of sailing do you actually want to do? If you want to race competitively, then you must buy a racing yacht. But it may be spartan and uncomfortable to live on. If you just want to potter around and enjoy being afloat in a solid seaworthy boat that will look after you in almost any weather, and which has good comfortable accomodation, then you are looking for a completely diffierent boat. One compromise is the club racer - a cruising boat which is fast enough to be competitive for a bit of weekend club racing, and yet has the comfort and seakindliness of a cruiser. But recommendations will depend entirely on your budget - theres no point in looking at boats in the £70 -£100k bracket if your budget is realistically only £20 - £30k, for example.

Answer these questions, and there will be many people on the forums who can tell you which boats they have found suitable in your price range, and are likely to give you the kind of sailing you want.

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[SlowlyButSurely]

Twenty years ago the standard answer to this question was a Westerly Centaur and I think it probably still is.


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[robp]

After dinghy's and a 20 footer, our first "family" boat was a Mirage 2700 (about 25 foot), twin keel. (Will sit safely on the sea bed if you run out of water)! Point is that it was perfect for a family to "find" sailing. There are several similar boats in the 12K to 25K bracket. Look in the back of Yachting Monthly for charter companies that have 25/27 footers, then go on a day sail with their skipper in charge. If it goes well, take it out on a nice day with your partner as skipper and go from there. But it's really important that the kids see sunshine and calm seas in the beginning.

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[Koeketiene]

We were in a similar position years ago. Though I had been sailing since before we met, it has taken me 11 years to convince my wife that we should get a boat of our own.
We have two children (7 & 12) and we were looking for a reasonably comfortable and safe boat. Going by my own experience we started looking at Dufour, Gib'Sea, Sigma & Catalina. Out of the blue the wife suggested Etap - it's unsinkable, isn't it? Even though there was a very nice Catalina 36 on the market, within our budget, I could not convince her to go for it. What about an Etap?
So I was forced to take a closer look. To cut a long story short, when ended up buying one. And I haven't regretted it for one moment. In my opinion it's very close to the ultimate family cruiser.
If you have a look around you should be able to find a very reasonable 22-28ft boat for about £25,000. In the 3 years we've had Yanita, we've yet to meet an Etap owner who wasn't very pleased with his boat - at first I got the feeling I had joined a cult/sect.
Have a look - it's worth it.

<hr width=100% size=1>Fair winds.
If not... reef early!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Bilge keelers/lift keels/catamarans are all good with kids, becase you can park in a drying creek or on a beach and let them get ashore for a run around, sandcastles, ice cream, etc; which they enjoy much more than bashing around the next headland in order to end up tied to a marina.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Talbot]

Biggest problem about the advise you want is pitching it at the right price level. I bought a 9m catalac originally cause wife and daughter wanted to sail upright. additional benefit was that each of our kids had a seperate cabin, and there was a full 6'6" long double bed in the master cabin, and there was still extra for guests. When we were more used to the boat it even became a great pleasure to sail in the rain. the wheel was under shelter, and at the same level as the saloon, so you could still converse with the family, and they could look out of the windows at people in full fouly clothing sitting miserably on the rails of boats sailing along at ridiculous angles. There are disadvantages - sailing to windward is definetly not one of its strong points, and antifouling seems to take forever!!!

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[phanakapan]

welcome - not that many of us girls on this forum! May I recommend doing a Competent Crew course, followed by Day Skipper; not that your partner can't teach you, but if you both are competent it will free up some head space for dealing with the kids. A flotilla holiday in the Med is also probably a slighter better idea than a plain charter, as there are likely to be other families and therefore more built-in entertainment for them; and the help you get at the start/end of the day can be useful- however brilliant a sailor your partner is, it's tough if he has to virtually sail the boat on his own and teach you and keep the kids happy and tinker with the engine if anything goes wrong and... well you get my drift. Try and get experience on as many different boats as you can meanwhile.

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