Very young childs harness

Otter

Otter

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We spent hours planning what to do if our 2 year old hated sailing. Turns out she loves it - up and down the side decks whilst underway, loves hanging off the pulpit and generally terrifying her parents. We clip her onto the lifting becket on her foam lifejacket but this is unsatisfactory and we want a purpose made harness for her, but the only ones we've found go from age 5 upwards. Does anyone have a suggestion? We tried a standard child harness from Mothercare but wouldn't trust it.

Thanks, Simon
 
Well much depends on how close to one place you want to tether her.
If you want to keep her in the cockpit on a short tether then harness does not need to be so strong. It can have a pull from the front or back.

If you are willing to give her more freedom such that she might go overboard then harness needs to pull from the back up high and be strong enough to take the drag of the child. Much stronger with more straps to hold it in place ie high up on the back but with some load taken at the crotch.

I would suggest that webbing sewn on a domestic sewing machine will give a very strong product exactly to the size and design you want. Critical joints can be hand stitched with whipping twine.

Good old velcro can be very strong if looped around a ring and back onto itself and is wide enough.

My son started sailing with me at about that age perhaps more like 3yo he sat in the corner of the pulpit and really enjoyed it all. Now he is a more skilled sailor than me Just give them jobs and responsibility as soon as possible. good lcuk olewill
 
We used these.

Our kids are now 7 & 11. The 11 year old has just graduated to an inflateable with inbuilt harness.

The reason for these was that they have a inbuilt harness & bouyancy. The bouyancy serves 2 purposes: the obvious floatation one & also that if the child falls as they do in boats, it affords quite a bit of protection.

Since our rule is that if the kids are not inside they always wear a lifejacket, something with a harness in best. They can just clip on rather than having to get a harness on & a jacket.
 
Recomend something like the Baltic harness linked to above. we have crewsaver one but it does not have a crotch strap which I belive it should have so we rigged a peice of rope on it for the crotch. Our kids have been using them since they were less than 1 years old and on board prefer them to the life jackets which can restrict their movement a little more. So we find we need both a life jacket (with integral harness) and a sperate harness, crewsaver and baltic both seem to be good.
 
Perhaps you already have it,but can I suggest that you obtain some nylon netting and fix to the lifelines except where the mooring warps will enter. This will serve as a catcher for the occasional slip-up and prevent an overboard problem too. As a bonus it keeps lowered sails on board when laid on the deck. The netting is available from most chandleries and not overly unpleasant to look at when fitted properly.
ianat182
 
Thanks everyone for the ideas, we had googled away but not found any of those.

I'm not very pro netting, I think we would rely on it instead of being healthily paranoid. The toddler is permanently lifelined to the jackstay to give her freedom but she's got to learn to hold on somehow. Jackstays and lifelines are easily inspected for UV damage and wear, 20 metres of netting with probably 1km of line involved has too many possible weak points for my liking.
 
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