Tips for cruising with a one-year-old?

[OrangeCrush]

After browsing related posts on the forum, I've come to realize that sailing with babies is one of those hot-button topics like what anchor to use, or whether to keep firearms on board (or what firearm to anchor your baby down with). So at the risk of wading right in...

This July I’m sailing with my wife and baby daughter from Onset, MA to Brooklyn, NY. My daughter will be exactly one year old. We'll take as long as we need, maybe two weeks, as we make very short hops homewards. We’ll be spending a lot more time at anchor than underway. I'd love to hear tips if you’ve done something similar, particularly any systems you devised or gear you bought that you found essential.

Here’s what I’m thinking…

Ergo Carrier
I think this will be the most important item while underway. My wife will wear her while I do the boat stuff, generally speaking.
Car seat
-Maybe we won’t end up using this so much but it would be good for "all hands on deck moments" and when she's sleeping underway. I’ll rig a tie down location in the cabin and another on deck.
“Jolly Jumper” or similar
-I’m thinking I’ll make a sling that goes over the boom that we can clip this to with a carabiner so she can “hang out” in the cockpit when we’re anchored. It may also possible to run webbing around the cabin in a few locations so we can clip her in there too.
Clamp-on high chair for meals
-It can clamp to the cockpit table or down below.
Inflatable bath tub for well supervised water play
-I hate buying cheap plastic stuff that will get thrown away soon, but this seems like a nice thing to have for swimming and beach experiences.
Canvas enclosure for sleeping
-This one's a little tricky. Last fall, the lee cloths made the settee into a perfect little bassinet for her, but she’s bigger and better at escaping now. Rather than try to wedge a bulky pack&play somewhere, I think I’ll make a canvas enclosure for her to sleep in, effectively making a little walled in area on the settee that gets tied on top and bottom like a lee cloth. A piece of mosquito netting can go over the top when necessary.



So if you have any brands or items to recommend, or systems you came up with, or commentary on what I've thought up so far, please share. Thanks!

[thinwater]

A full body harness they cannot possibly worm out of. This is tricky with a 1-year old, because they have no bones, or so it seems sometimes. I made my own, based on industrial harness concepts, combined with some modifications to make it Houdini-proof. It's too hot in the summer to wear a PFD constantly, they love to move around, but you need a way to attach a tether that is 100% reliable. A typical chest harness is NOT enough, and a crotch strap is not enough to fix it. This was 30 years ago, and there was much less on the market then.



Google "body harness child sailing" and look at "images" for some ideas.

[Montanan]

And as is apparent that you are loving, diligent and safety conscious parents, advancing a few years, one will be considering:

[leecea]

Most of my thoughts are about planning for the worst. How much of that you do is personal preference.

I would be nervous about anyone wearing the child carrier underway. That means neither the wearer nor the child are wearing PFDs and a person in the water with an infant in a carrier would be in a bad situation. Plus, if the adult suffers any type of fall or even just being banged into something by a wave, it can have much worse consequences for the child if they are between the hard object and the adult.

I would want a PFD for the child.

I'd also want to think about how my emergency plans would work with this new and helpless passenger: fire below, knockdown, MOB, abandon ship.

[OrangeCrush]

Good point regarding the challenges of wearing the baby, I’ll have to think on that.

And yes we have a good PFD already, I should have mentioned that. But I also agree that there will be times we’d rather have her harnessed up and strapped in without a PFD.

[Tetepare]

I did as you propose with the lee cloth.

Friends had a self righting floating baby “seat” which I think is a good idea on an ocean passage. Expensive but worth it.

Is your Shannon 38 formerly “Mystic” ?

[Don C L]

My youngest was 3 when we started taking him coastal cruising so a comfy PFD and harness were the staples. Once yer anchored then the toys come out of course. This social group may have a few ideas: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...with+kids.html

[psk125]

Our daughter started to walk the week before we left on a cruise... Like Thinwater, we got her the most babyproof harness we could find and used it. Car seat was good too, since she was used to it already. Have you considered netting the lifelines? For a playpen/crib we walled off the forepeak with baby gates and found they worked well.

[akopac]

We netted our lifelines. I ran a wood closet pole and hardware from the for-peak to the first bulkhead in the V-birth. Then ran shade cloth over it down to a batten under the cushion. The end retainer on the bulkhead was setup so you could rotate it and drop the pole to access in the birth. I’m looking for pictures now. When our son came to the boat from the hospital when he was born I had built a 2x3x3 foot plexiglass crib with teak top edges that was just to the side of the head of our bed pillows. Most important thing on board was the diaper genie. We filled our dinghy in the davits with garbage bags full of diaper genie sausages. and brought them ashore and disposed of them properly when we anchored. We left Treasure Island, SF Bay when he was about 1 1/2 and sailed to Ecuador and back. He did home schooling and school in Ecuador. My trip journal.com/soylibre

[Noisykate]

My twopennyworth:

*By one years old, the infant will start to have some opinions about things;

*Carrying a one-year-old 'all the time' is not an option, and in anything other than calm conditions is not safe. If the carrier goes in the water (with lifejacket?!? without lifejacket? - baby dies. Carrier falls - baby dies;

*Teach them to at least 'recover' in the water (ie turn face-up to breathe), but this is last-resort, not first - a small child will last seconds in cold water alone;

*Work out a way to keep them on the boat at all times (netting etc), assuming you will NOT be able to 'watch' them 100% of the time, and at a year on, they will be mobile;

* Enjoy. Most of the time, it will be great!

[Benz]

We never bothered with lifejackets or tethers for the children (5, 3, an 9months) when we started out. On passage, the children weren't allowed out of the cockpit, unless it was dead calm. When we needed two hands on deck, my wife wore the baby in a carrier sling, but she didn't leave the helm--I did all the monkeying around.
Each of them has been fished out of the water here and there, but they always went in at anchor, where no sane person would put a PFD on them anyway, or off the dinghy--no big deal.
On short day-hops along the coast in sheltered water, you're not going to be wearing PFDs anyway, so having the child in a carrier is fine.

[taxwizz]

Can she swim?

[adjo]

Our 2 children were born aboard and knew no other life until they were 6 & 9 years old.

We installed netting on the lifelines and there was a single simple rule: one foot must always be on the deck. They quickly learned and soon became better on deck than us adults.

The V-berth up forward was padded all round and had a 'door' so it was effectively a playpen that kept them safe in bad weather or when we were both needed on deck.

Other than that it was all fairly straightforward - though sometimes exhausting.

They survived. We survived.

[taxwizz]

Originally Posted by adjo

Our 2 children were born aboard and knew no other life until they were 6 & 9 years old.

We installed netting on the lifelines and there was a single simple rule: one foot must always be on the deck. They quickly learned and soon became better on deck than us adults.

The V-berth up forward was padded all round and had a 'door' so it was effectively a playpen that kept them safe in bad weather or when we were both needed on deck.

Other than that it was all fairly straightforward - though sometimes exhausting.

They survived. We survived.

I am jealous. My kids would be jealous.

It sounds like your kids are having a wonderful and adventurous life.

However you must insure that they receive an education that prepares them for success in the commercial world. I wish you the very best of success.

[Hudson Force]

Our children were cruising with us from infancy. We used many of the suggestions listed above, - especially having restricted locations away from running rigging and potential falls. We honored the rule, "You can't fall off the floor!"