Moving onto boat with 5 children

[lrjetav8r]

LOL! Maybe we could be "the Duggar's of the Sea!"

[svseachange]

Kids on boats is kind of like the bluewater boats discussion. It is the crew that matters more than the boat.

In the last few days I've heard of two boats talk about calling it quits because one of the crew members wants to go back to land. Both boats are bigger than ours and only have two on board. Sometimes no amount of luxury can bribe an unwilling spouse.

We usually have three people on board a 34' 10' beam boat but we have five people on board six weeks each year. Sure, the last time I cussed out the 4 yo was tonight over dinner, but that happened whem we lived in a house as well. There is a 44 boat we met in No Name Harbor on which four boys were raised. Three of the now grown boys are on the boat for the holidays and they seemed to have turned out OK.

Give yourself a reality check (your spouse must be 100% on board) then talk to familycruisers for inspiration. He is out there doing it, I can vouch for him.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

[S/V Alchemy]

I would make sure you get as much ocean experience as possible before you go much further. The only truly useful crew you have is the 13 year old. I would also make sure that that teen, male or female, gets plenty of RYA or ASA courses done, because it will be impossible for a pair of inexperienced adults to double-hand the running of a bigger boat with five kids without the eldest kid standing half-watches.

Read "The Voyage of the Northern Magic" for plenty of real-world, unvarnished insight on what you are proposing.

Read "Black Wave" for the "horrible warning" version. Just borrow it from the library or get it at a yard sale. I doubt you'll want to keep it.

Fair winds and get learning! Buying the boat is the easy part.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by shanedennis

Kids on boats is kind of like the bluewater boats discussion. It is the crew that matters more than the boat....

Give yourself a reality check (your spouse must be 100% on board) then talk to familycruisers for inspiration. He is out there doing it, I can vouch for him.

Very good advice right here!

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by shanedennis

Kids on boats is kind of like the bluewater boats discussion. It is the crew that matters more than the boat....

Give yourself a reality check (your spouse must be 100% on board) then talk to familycruisers for inspiration. He is out there doing it, I can vouch for him.

Very good advice right here!

[PSA]

We live aboard a Morgan 41 with two kids but when we were in the Dry Tortugas last March we met a family of nine on a Morgan 41. They also had a dog and cat.They told us that basically everything was a bed. I think they are in Panama currently. The name of their boat was S/V Invincible. Their blog was invincibleadventure.com. It can be done and you won't regret it. It is the best decision we ever made. We'll be crossing to the Bahamas in the next couple of weeks and then onward to Grenada.

Good Luck
Paul
S/V Shambala

[JPA Cate]

Back in 1987 we met a New Zealand family with four children on an ex-Admiral's Cup boat, loa 45'. They had done a Pacific loop. The kids ranged in age from 12 down to 6. They did just fine. The 12 yr. old was a boy, and one of his responsibilities was to take his Solomon Is. canoe and survey the anchorage for sharks before any of the younger kids could go swimming.....

I like BobnConnies story, too.

There will be many nay-sayers, because people resist quite strongly what threatens their sense of "how it ought to be"...which isn't living aboard, and many of them will clothe their ideas in the "it's unsafe" dress. Ignore them, feel sorry for them if you must, but know that most landlubbers cannot understand one's living on a boat and raising your kids along the way. They will only argue with you. Ultimately, no one can weigh the dangers because no one can see the future.

Ann

[lrjetav8r]

Re: Moving onto boat with 5 children
We live aboard a Morgan 41 with two kids but when we were in the Dry Tortugas last March we met a family of nine on a Morgan 41. They also had a dog and cat.They told us that basically everything was a bed. I think they are in Panama currently. The name of their boat was S/V Invincible. Their blog was invincibleadventure.com. It can be done and you won't regret it. It is the best decision we ever made. We'll be crossing to the Bahamas in the next couple of weeks and then onward to Grenada.

Good Luck
Paul
S/V Shambala


Thanks for the information about the above blog. We are reading the blog and it's nice to know that there other people out their with more children than we have and doing it on the exact boat we want.