FAMILY SAILING
A raft of sailors share their top tips for keeping crew of all ages happy
As sailors, you’re likely to share your passion with your nearest and dearest. For cruising sailors, the promise of quality time with your family, adventures and memories for the children and passing on your love of the sea is likely to be among the reasons to take them sailing, whether they are your own children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren or those of friends. Family sailing isn’t without its challenges, however. How do you keep your crew happy, warm, fed, entertained and occupied within the confines of a small boat? And how does life aboard change as children grow from babies and toddlers to teenagers? More importantly, how do you ensure that going sailing is a positive experience for everyone involved, and that they are going to want to come back next time?
Unlike navigation or boat handling, there are no courses or text books for sailing with family. The particular challenges will be different for everyone, depending on the children’s age, temperament, and how many of them there are, the size of your boat, your level of experience, where you sail and the kind of sailing you’re planning.
We’ve canvassed a diverse group of skippers who sail with an array of family arrangements, including as grandparents, parents and teenagers, from liveaboard cruisers to open-boat adventurers, and those raised with salt in their blood to sailing novices. Their wisdom has been gained through years of family sailing and discovering by experience what works and what doesn’t. It’s easy to put a child off sailing with an initial negative experience, but a positive one can be the start of a lifelong passion for the sea. Clearly, the sailors in this article have found how to make family sailing a success, and hopefully their advice and experiences will help you do the same.
STARTING SLOW
The most formative time for your children will be the first few times you sail with them, says Olly Perkins. ‘Children and teenagers are quick to decide if they like something or not and it would be very easy to put your kids off sailing for life if you are not careful. Most importantly, don’t be too ambitious. Even one eight-hour passage in a lumpy sea could give children the impression that sailing is always unpleasant.
‘Start off with small trips, building up excitement towards big adventures. It took us years before we first ventured out of the cosy confines of Chichester Harbour, once we did we were so thrilled to be able to leave harbour.’
Abi Kavanagh agrees that, initially at least, plans should be modest. ‘We have found that for any given trip we do less sailing than we did pre-kids and never push as hard, but as they get older this is changing. We’ve done a few very early morning departures with the kids still asleep and late evening sails after they have gone to bed which have worked well.’
You don’t even have to leave harbour if you don’t want to. ‘Sometimes not going anywhere is as much of an adventure with young children,’ says Hamish Southby Tailyour. ‘On a mooring just use the boat as a base for the weekend with a barbecue or pub supper ashore. At anchor stay there an extra day, relax and see who turns up in the evening.’
Having all the mod cons isn’t necessary either. Conrad Humphreys and daughters
enjoy river cruises in an open boat. ‘We’ve been mainly cruising around Devon and Cornwall, exploring the rivers closer to home,’ he says. ‘We love the Yealm and the upper reaches of the Tamar and Lynher Rivers are just fantastic for a small, shallow draft boat like Bounty’s End. This year we plan to explore the River Fal and venture down to the Scilly Isles, which should be a reasonable passage in an open boat.
‘Our biggest challenge when away for longer trips is keeping Bounty’s End’s batteries charged, as she is fully electric with only a small capacity to charge when under sail. We either carry a small generator or make sure we can spend the night in a marina for an overnight charge if necessary.’
ATTRACTIONS ASHORE
Think about where children would choose to go. ‘In the early years, we favoured beach anchorages, and that now holds true with our small granddaughters,’ says Ken Endean – and beaches were the most popular by consensus. Priorities change as children get older, however. ‘Teenagers are more alert to foreign cultures and places that are off the normal tourist track, while unfamiliar wildlife, such as dolphins, is always a bonus,’ says Ken. ‘Our actual passage planning was not greatly affected by having youngsters on board: a cruise should be safe and comfortable, whatever the ages of the crew.’
Planning small adventures works well, says Perkins. ‘We loved visiting beaches, fishing and going on “expeditions” – in other words, walks we hadn’t done before.’
MEET OTHERS
It’s also about the people you’ll meet, says Hamish Southby Tailyour. ‘Plan to meet with friends either afloat or on the beach on your cruise. Row over, with your children, to any boat with other children onboard sharing the anchorage or marina. Join Kids4sail, a subset of www.noforeignland.com. This totally changed our cruising and connecting with other boats with children in the Med.’
Erin Carey agrees. ‘When cruising with children, the destinations you choose to visit will often revolve around where the other boats with kids are. This gives them the chance to make playmates and allows parents to have a break. It’s truly amazing how quickly families on boats can become friends, with the common interest of keeping the kids sociable, well-rounded creatures.’
DON’T FIGHT THE WEATHER
‘I am much more mindful about the weather, picking and choosing the days when I know sailing will be enjoyable for us both,’ says Graham Snook. ‘This is probably one of the most important things I’ve learnt. Being divorced, the dates I have Ella are set in advance so if the weather doesn’t look good, we don’t go sailing and use the boat as a base instead. Last year the two weeks over the holiday were beset by strong winds; we still went to the boat but did different things around Gosport instead.’
FAMILY PLANNING
One piece of advice from Hamish is to get everyone involved with the planning. ‘Google maps, electronic charts – get your digital natives helping. Ask them and give no more than two choices, both that are acceptable to you. You may need lots of expectation management. Pubs, ice-cream, the draw of good free Wi-fi connections, and time on the beach are obvious incentives, but funfairs, skate parks and a land visit to the local lighthouse have all proved to be tempting destinations.’