Where are all the kid boats?

[P3sailor]

Originally Posted by PortClydeMe

I can understand your dream for your children, yet being a parent I can advise you with experience. First, the oceans are not filled with "sailing families". You are dreaming. Maybe once in a while you will come across one. If you take children out on the ocean for a "multi-year / no timetable" dream life, this is what you will soon hear:

1) "When are we going home?"
2) "I miss my friends, and climbing trees."
3) "Dad, all we do is look at water every day. Will this ever end?"
4) "Why are you and mommy always taking home videos of us on this boat? What's that Patreon account? Shouldn't you be working?"
5) "I'm tired of swimming." (with tears)

You forgot one, "Daaad, When we gonna be there?"

[neophytecruiser]

Based on the kids we've met while cruising, I'll have to agree with Jim and Ann Cate. The kids of cruising families are some of the most engaging, responsible and gregarious young people we had the pleasure to meet. Depending on where you cruise, the frequency of seeing a cruising family with children will differ. They are out there. A good reference you may want to read is a book co-authored by several cruising parents, offering perspective and insight to the advantages and pitfalls of sailing with children. The book, "Voyaging with Kids - A Guide to Family Life Afloat" might be worth your read. We crossed wakes with two of the authors; the Robinson family on Del Viento and the Giffords on Totem, in addition to several other families cruising with kids. So they're out there, sprinkled among the reprobates, sailing seniors and young adventurers plying the oceans in sailboats. Good luck with your plans and enjoy the experience.

[dkroar]

Sailing Totem is a great place to start.

https://www.sailingtotem.com/
and Behan's book, Voyaging with Kids.

We've known many families with children who grew up on boats, and without exception, they loved it, and grew to be fantastic adults.

[SY Kelpie]

Thanks for the encouragement! I've got my eye on Behan's book, in fact a friend has a copy and has offered to lend me it.

The Carribbean sounds promising- possibly also the Pacific. What about Europe? I'm not hearing so many anecdotes about families cruising the Med. Maybe because people tend to pack up and go ashore for the winter?

[stewie]

We are originally from Scotland and left from the River Tay in 1981 on our sail boat. We sailed the Eastern Med and then to the Caribbean. In 1986 When my wife was expecting our first child the yacht was sold and we settled in Spain. In 1987 when our daughter was 14 months we took off again this time in a motor yacht from Mallorca. We cruised S. America, Caribbean, Bahamas to Florida in 1991. There we met some parents who told us that our daughter was missing out on pre school and we went along to meet the head teacher who asked our child what she had been doing. She told her that she had seen whales and lots of other stuff, and at the end the head said that she had learned much more than if she had been at school ! True up to that point we had met few children, but the ones we had met were all responsible for their age and enjoying every minute of sailing - and were a credit to their parents too. Some were educated on board and later went on to university. They were not influenced by material things, but by adventure,nature and the sea. Like ours your cruise might forever change your life and your families too. We never returned to live in Scotland and our daughter grew up multi lingual, has a university degree and loves to visit Scotland - but warmer climes makes life a little bit easier. Go for it and you will all have the time of your life.

[stewie]

We are originally from Scotland and left from the River Tay in 1981 on our sail boat. We sailed the Eastern Med and then to the Caribbean. In 1986 When my wife was expecting our first child the yacht was sold and we settled in Spain. In 1987 when our daughter was 14 months we took off again this time from Mallorca. We cruised S. America, Caribbean, Bahamas to Florida in 1991. There we met some parents who told us that our daughter was missing out on pre school and we went along to meet the head teacher who asked our child what she had been doing. She told her that she had seen whales and lots of other stuff, and at the end the head said that she had learned much more than if she had been at school ! True up to that point we had met very few children, but the ones we had met were all responsible for their age and enjoying every minute of sailing - and were a credit to their parents too. Some were educated on board and later went on to university. They were not influenced by material things, but by nature and the sea. Like ours your cruise might forever change your life and your families too. We never returned to live in Scotland and our daughter grew up multi lingual, has a university degree and loves to visit Scotland - but warmer climes makes life a little bit easier. Go for it and you will all have the time of your life.

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by SY Kelpie

We hope to set off in about three years time on an open ended cruise, starting from Scotland and heading somewhere a bit warmer and sunnier! Currently a family of three (could be one more by then) and of prime importance is to meet up with other sailing families.
I think I'm quite aware of the usual options- Algarve/Gib, Med, Canaries, Atlantic circuit, and in my dreams pushing on further and into the Pacific.
We have no set timetable, but want our boy (who will be 5 or 6) to have a good time. One of my main concerns is that he could find it a bit lonely. I have the impression that the Med, for example, is full of retired Brits. Maybe that's completely wrong of course!

So, based on the need to hang out with other family boats, what cruising areas should we be looking at?

Look on FB for families with kids sailing.

Maje

[Macblaze]

http://www.svpartyoffive.com...He's around on on the forum here as well. Reading it sure makes it seem like there are tons of kid boats in the Caribbean...

[gjordan]

Thinking a little more about kids. Steve and Linda Dashews young daughters had a ball sailing around Papeete harbor in their little dinghy and Herb and Nancy Paysons son became a very good shell collector and found a dealer back in the states and earned money as a 10 year old on a boat (probably not legal to export shells now) . We even had a 10 year old move onto our boat (26 foot) in the Marqueses because everybody else on her boat had denge fever and the folks didnt want her to catch it. I wont say that there were lots of kids, but there were enough for families to socialize. Grant.

[UYA]

Hi SY Kelpie,


to answer your question: where are all the kids boats? Here is our experience:
We (family with 2 kids: 3 and 5) left from Germany in April 2017, went through the Netherlands, along the French, Spanish and Portuguese coast and then into the Caribbean.
In Europe we didn't meet many other sailing families. To be honest, they were not very interested in meeting up with us and our daughter was getting lonely. I assume they were locals out sailing, enjoying their weekend / vacation with the family - no need to meet foreigners.
The picture changed very much in the Caribbean, lots of long term cruisers, families among them. Just dinghy over to any (kids) boat and say hi. Usually they are looking for playmates too.

Grenada in the summer (hurricane season) is a hot spot.
A good resource is kids4sail on Facebook as mentioned earlier.
If you want to ask more questions feel free to also message us directly.

Cheers Sherrie & Patrick

[salfarina]

Take a look at some of the cruising families that post videos on YouTube. There are plenty. I follow one in particular "SailingBritican" - They've been cruising with a child (now possibly 8 yrs. old) for the past 2 or 3 years and seem to have been all over the globe. Wherever they go, there appear to be many kids for their daughter to befriend, and often they island hop in small groups of 2 -3 boats. They also have a website and invite questions from viewers and it's my guess they'd be happy to hear yours and offer their experiential advice.


Good luck!!

[Sojourn2]

We are completing our second cruise from the Med to New Zealand and our third through the Pacific. First was in 1981. We are amazed at the number of kids boats this time....and how great the kids are. Most boats are heading to New Zealand for cyclone season and have already booked their kids into local schools whilst there.
All the kids we have met are fantastic and are loving their time afloat meeting other kid boats and locals their own age. At sea they stay in touch via email!!!
I bet the kids will love cruising at least as much as you.....and probably more.
PS. Our daughter was born while we were sailing the Pacific in a 32 footer!!

[Jim Cate]

One further comment: We've heard several comments from families with kids who did move back ashore so the youngsters could go to a land based high school... and these comments were that the kids found their age cohorts to be silly, boring and very immature. They were more in tune with adult society than their contemporaries.

I will not place value judgement on this... but I think it is real.

Jim

[Fence Man]

Hi there Kelpie. I have no advice on where to look for cruising kids, but try not to make it a problem until it is one. We have an only child, and she makes friends everywhere we go. We aren't fulltime cruisers yet, but she does fine the few months a year we spend on the boat, as well as in our travels. She likes kids, but really does prefer her adult friends. We are in our first year of home/boat/world school, and in my opinion, she is much better off. My wife and I had plans for a quick trip to the Annapolis Sailboat Show, and were able to bring her along and include several educational stops along the way. As a matter of fact, members of this forum were kind enough to make several great suggestions for us, and I'm happy to report that they were all wonderful. We have another day or two at the Smithsonian, and we'll be headed home, but it's been a wonderfully educational trip. As a bonus, one of the manufacturers I represent is based in Creiff, and she has been dying to go with me the next trip so she can be a real American and search for the ol' monster of Loch Ness!
I suppose that what I really mean is, I wish I'd been raised on a boat. ;-)

[elandra65]

I am sorry you received such a negative early response. Whilst not all boats have kids there are certainly enough of them for it not to be a problem. It depends on the age as to the challenges to be faced but pre senior high school is probably the easiest as home schooling is more basic and kids more flexible. I took 4 kids out of school and one of them deferred a uni degree for 2 years to come along on our 2 year trip through Asia and PNG. Aged between 10 and 19 so not ideal. However those years cruising particularly in developing countries have made them much more appreciative of what they have back home and a much better understanding of other cultures with the ability to filter the bull **** that modern society tries to force down your neck such as rampant consumerism. Much more rounded individuals! That experience also helped shape their career decisions with 2 of them taking on marine related disciplines and the other 2 in health.

I say go for it and I am sure you will get many more positive replies. There are many books out there about cruising kids so so some research as well and I am sure your concerns will be alleviated.

Good luck

Andrew