Members write that, having a young family, they have become distinctly nominal members, and ask if it would be useful to start a correspondence to help others in the same position to learn of precautions, methods and experiences of those who have taken their children cruising. As one whose children are still too young to be a fully competent crew I can write of the problems of the early years. Whether our attempts to overcome them have been successful will be more apparent when we see how the children take to sailing when they are older.

The first aspect of the problem which worries parents is, of course, safety. A very young child can be put in place in a carry-cot and will remain there so long as the boat stays the right way up — I would not myself take a baby as young as this in any but the most stable of dinghies. The small cabin boat has the advantage of a place where the child is safe from flying feet in an emergency. The slightly older child is more of a problem — mobile but not yet teachable. I would suggest that there is an age from six months to about two years when it is better for its parents to take turns in staying ashore to look after it, rather than attempting to control it aboard a dinghy. After that it should be possible to explain to the child why it is necessary to sit in one place rather than another and that some things must not be tampered with. They can then be taken sailing, equipped with lifejackets, lifelines and constant care. A good lifejacket must be found — very few are made which come up to the British Standard for children. The Vacuum Reflex one does, and we have tried it. It is safe, but very bulky — our three year old has to remove it to eat, as while she is wearing it she cannot get her hands to her mouth! I think that a good proportion of the buoyancy should be kapok, so that the child cannot accidentally deflate the whole lifejacket, but I am considering trying one which has part of the buoyancy as an inflatable extra, which might be blown up while actually under way.

A lifejacket alone is useless. I think a life-line far more a important, when one considers how long it takes to pick up anything which has fallen overboard. Harnesses can be bought. We use 1” ulstron line made fast by a bowline tied beneath the armpits under the lifejacket. These lines are worn at all times aboard when the boat is afloat, except while the children are in their sleeping bags for the night. They can be made fast to a cleat or round a thwart. In spite of such precautions children who go sailing must, of course, learn to swim as soon as possible.

The third essential precaution is to have an adult aboard whose sole charge is the children. I would not sail alone with them since the emergencies that arise in sailing make it impossible to keep one’s mind on their safety.

Young children can thus be transported by boat in reasonable safety. This, unfortunately, is not the only factor involved: my hope is that they will grow up to enjoy it so much that in the future they will be the ones who take me sailing. Parents must appreciate that the pleasure they take in finding their way from place to place in a small boat may well be no more exciting to the child than being transported by car. Long passages seem unbearably dull to them, especially if the conditions of sailing are such that they cannot be allowed to help sail the boat. They can be given toys — boats to trail, or fishing lines — and tedious tasks may turn out to delight them — bailing for instance. Yet after a couple of hours of — to them — featureless estuary, they will be asking irritably if you are ever going to arrive anywhere. I fear that during the early years of childhood a choice has to be made. If the children can be left ashore, the parents can make the long distance cruises they enjoy, but if they want to introduce the children to sailing, a different kind of cruise must be envisaged. Distances between anchorages should be short. There should be plenty of time for playing on the shore. If possible there should be some feature of real interest to the child. Ours enjoyed a few days on Windermere better than any other trip they have yet had. We camped on an island, which delighted them, and were able to sail from one point on the lake to another as we liked without having to wait hours for the tide to be right. Aboard our eighteen footer on the tidal estuary, their chief enjoyment comes from the pram dinghy. They row this by themselves in the shallow pools left at low tide, and also at the end of a line let out astern when the tide is in.

The final problem is, I fear, insoluble. Five people cannot sleep on board a dinghy, even when three of them are children. When one of the adults is large, we found they can only sail aboard a fourteen footer, complete with camping gear, in the calmest weather. Either the family must split up, or a larger boat must be bought. In fact, I find that it is far easier to let a child join in sailing the boat when there is only one of them to cope with, so perhaps taking them in turn might be a solution. Unfortunately there is not always a convenient and willing baby-minder on shore — and they may well resent being made to stay behind. That is one of the reasons why I now find myself with a boat too big for me to manage single-handed, un-ballasted as she is, except in light weather. If I could afford it, perhaps I would have a dinghy to sail alone, as well as the 18ft cabin boat for the family — but few of us have time to make enough use of two boats for it to be worthwhile buying a second one. Possibly when the children are older it is they who will ask for a dinghy to sail by themselves — for only when they can take an active part in the business of sailing can they be expected to enjoy it.