Boating holidays can bring a family closer as everyone works together to keep the boat moving. On weeklong bareboat yacht charters, your kids may even discover that some of the "necessities" at home - such as the TV, VCR and video games - are really luxuries that they can live without...and they soon to substitute, swimming, snorkeling, exploring around coves, hiking, fishing, reading and playing on the boat.

In this section, we look at how to enjoy bareboat yacht charters and a skippered yacht charter cruising your children, with the focus mainly on making the most of an extended sailing holidays on a charter boat... although the dangers afloat always seem much worse than shore-side dangers, in actual fact so long as the rules are observed, children are considerably safer at sea on a charter boat than they are playing at home, crossing roads, etc. The first rule, of course, on sailing holidays is obedience, immediate obedience to all commands, and this must be instinctive.

There's no doubt a disobedient child afloat is in continual danger and unless willing obedience can be taught everyone on board will be in a constant state of tension.

The wearing of life jackets must be automatic. Before a child steps into a boat of any sort, dinghy, tender, yacht, cruiser, what-have-you, the jacket must go on.

Preparing your family as crew on sailing holidays

The comfort level with a child is important. Children are very sensitive to their parents' emotions and can pick up on their fears...If you're afraid to take children on a sailing holiday, they'll be afraid to be there. If you're nervous about your yacht charter, try to assess why you're concerned and then take concrete steps to conquer those fears.

Teach your children to swim
Probably every parent's biggest fear about boating holidays in Australia is a child drowning. It can't be said often enough...One of the most important things to do before taking your family sailing is to make sure that everyone can swim. At this stage, your children's ability to swim and be comfortable in the water is far more important than their knowledge of the finer points of sailing...When children are confident of their swimming abilities, they seem to learn to sail much more easily because they're more relaxed and more likely to have fun.

When picking a swimming school, make sure that the swim instructors are trained in the techniques they're teaching and know basic safety procedures.

Look for swimming instructors who have first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and water safety instructor certifications.

Of course, non swimmers can enjoy sailing too. Non swimmers (and small children) should always wear a life jacket. Check out life jackets and safety harnesses, later in this section.

Picking your bareboat

You need to think about what kind of boat you want to take your sailing holidays on... and the the most important factor to be considered is what is the experience level of the parent... see the full range of bareboats available for bareboat yacht charter in Queensland.

Novice sailors should try to go sailing with people who have more experience than they do... For intermediate sailors, the most important thing is to pick a boat that they feel comfortable in - so that the children will feel comfortable and enjoy the experience. This could mean choosing a motor cruiser instead of a yacht. To read more about picking a bareboat read out article Charter the Right Bareboat.

Which bareboat to charter
Beginning sailors, young and old, can feel more comfortable on a catamaran (twin hull) or motor cruiser than aboard a single hull yacht...But that should not rule out a sailing yacht which has a heavy, ballasted keel under the boat providing stability.

To provide some help in trying to match a bareboat type to the experience of the parents, the table below offers some general guidelines for the minimum age of children on the various types of bareboat you can charter.

Note: The table assumes light to moderate wind and sea conditions in protected waters. For the purposes of the table... a novice sailor has the equivalent of one basic sailing course and little practical experience...an intermediate sailor has completed basic sailing training and has six months to two years of practical experience... advanced sailors have three or more years of experience in a variety of wind conditions.

Suggested minimum age of child on different bareboats

* For novice sailors, we recommend a sailing holiday with children on a yacht only if the children are good swimmers and are comfortable in new situations.

Childproofing your bare boat

Sailing safety begins before you get under way. Before your family goes on a bareboat yacht charter, keep these safety precautions in mind:

• Don't allow leaning over or through the lifelines.
• Rule out running (especially while under way).
• Ensure that any lifeline gates have clasps that little fingers can't undo.
• Look at where a child would land if he or she fell down the hatch.
  Are there any sharp corners in the cabin that should be padded?
• Put an awning over the cockpit while at anchor. Sunburn can ruin a child's enjoyment of sailing and your boating holiday. Awnings provide a shady, cool resting spot.

Practicing safety on the water

So, after you childproof the bareboat for your children, your job's over, right?...You know better than that. A parent's job is never over, and that's especially true while on sailing holidays.

Life jackets
Do you let your small child go for a car ride without being put into a car seat? Probably not and besides that it would be against the law... The same consistency will help you get your child to always wear a life jacket on the water. When purchasing a child's life jacket, look for the following specifics:

• You need a PFD Type 1 (Personal Flotation Device) of the appropriate size as this has sufficient floatation to support the body and head. The floatation collar keeps your child's head above water.
  
  
• A strap between the legs is necessary to keep the jacket from slipping off.

The PFD should not be so bulky that the child can't put both hands together in front (or else he won't be able to hold on properly)... and if you're still nervous about your child being near the water even in a life jacket... test it, and your child in a swimming pool first.

Left: Proof that life jackets for tiny babies really are available. This youngster, less than six months old, finds the motion of the boat soothing and sleeps through anything.

Buoyancy
Air trapped in children's clothing can upset the righting characteristics of life jackets - and this can be dramatically seen when a life jacket is worn with 'oilies'. So make certain you try out the jacket over the clothes your child will wear.

For a young child in nappies you also have to be sure that the collar size combats the buoyancy in the modern nappy.

Harnesses on a bareboat
Many families with young children prefer to use safety harnesses instead of life jackets while at sea... A safety harness provides the ultimate security from falling overboard and allows a child freedom to move around without the bulk of the life jacket. A safety harness should fit a child snugly without falling off the shoulders and, for small children, should have a strap between the legs.

The harness attaches to a tether that clips onto any solid object including jack stays. Jack stays are ropes, webbing, or cables that run along the deck on either side of the cabin the length of your bareboat, specifically for use with safety harnesses... It is not good practice to attach the harness to a lifeline; they put your child closer to the edge of the boat and can break... Rig the jack line so that you can clip the safety harness onto it before your child leaves the cockpit.

The importance of safety harnesses cannot be too heavily stressed - they are vital if parents on sailing holidays are going to have any peace of mind at all.

Be sure to satisfy yourself that the harness strap is fitted high on the body and has sufficient slack allowing the child to roll-over, and not be held face down... the body has to tilt so a child is towed on the back if falling over underway.

Keeping tabs on the kids
Watching your child play around your bareboat is like watching your child play near a busy street - real danger lurks close by, and parents must know where their children are at every moment.

Here are some safety rules and guidelines to get you started when cruising with kids on sailing or boating holidays :

• Children can only be on deck with an adult, and children have to tell the adult when they want to go back down below.
  
• While sailing, children can't go on deck without an adult's permission nor without their safety harness and/or life jacket.
  
• Know all the ways that children can get on deck - they may surprise you by opening and climbing through the front hatch by themselves.
  
• Know when you are "on watch." Always hand off the caretaker's responsibility verbally.
  
• Be just as careful when you're at a marina.

Let children help

Even if your children have never had a sailing lesson, they can learn a great deal on sailing holidays, especially if you let them help with certain jobs.

Children can do almost anything on a bareboat with adult supervision, but certain jobs, including the following, can always be in the kids' domain:

• Making all the lines shipshape. Keeping all the ropes coiled.
• Relaying commands when anchoring or mooring.
• Scrubbing the decks... Or else they can walk the plank.
• Stowing fenders and dock lines - Tying knots.

First and foremost - food... nothing makes a child sailor grumpier than running out of their favourite foods. With all the new experiences that your children will have on sailing holiday, they find it comforting to eat their favourite foods at mealtime. And although getting back to nature and fishing for your meals is great... assume in your provisioning that the fish won't be biting.

Sailing holidays with a baby

On longer boating holidays in Australia with a baby, using disposable nappies probably makes sense, because cleaning cloth nappies can run through your water supply very quickly... Disposables take up a great deal of space, so you need to pack plenty of plastic bags to keep those used nappies well sealed until you get to a rubbish bin on shore.

Luckily the carrycot acts as a pram, cot, playpen, the lot... and solves a good many problems when taking babies afloat. The main problem is finding safe stowage for the cot below and in the cockpit when sailing. It should be wedged in securely on a bunk down below to stop it slipping and sliding around, and you should choose a place where there is some fresh air, but no danger of the occasional dollop of spray. Secure fastening in the cockpit is not quite so easy, but by means of chocks and a rope lashing it is possible to fix the cot so that it stays put. Preferably it should be fixed amidships in the cockpit, with the baby lying fore and aft, otherwise the cot will have to be moved over each time the ship is tacked

Disposable nappies, ready-prepared tinned baby foods and milks make feeding and looking after the tiny baby a simple matter. Probably the biggest item of equipment will be the bath, but an ordinary plastic bowl serves the purpose well enough.

Unlike older children, babies do not need amusing, but they do need careful watching. Remember the sun's glare from the water is particularly strong, so don't expose the tiny baby to too much sun afloat, and remember that sea breezes are drying and burning and they can also be very chilling.