Who's got a boat and how old were your dcs when you started taking them on it?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Am dying to talk about boats. Please indulge me as I never get to go sailing any more and I really really enjoyed Katymac's Oppie/Topper thread last Fri.

We have a little plastic dinghy called a Bobbin, which cost £100 and which we have never sailed, a 12 foot clinker Tideway dinghy which I bought to do up but had 2 children in quick succession so she is still very leaky and unusable, and a Canadian canoe hanging up in the garage.

Am suffering from serious boating withdrawal symptoms....can anyone come and talk about boats (any sort will do) and cheer me up please?

A Humber Keel, Kathy. Not rigged, sadly - she's a motor barge.

BTW, my dd is learning to sail with the Sea Scouts on a gravel pit. A good and cheap way for children to learn if you have a troop in striking distance. And they have huge amounts of fun doing it>

Golly. How old is the boat?

I grew up in Maldon in Essex and knew one or two people who owned Thames sailing barges and one person who actually lived in one.

OK, that's it. Am off to buy an oppie this summer before we go to Cornwall . Then I will have to re-read all of Arthur Ransome's book again.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=4090&threadid=337526 &stamp=070611135634

this is such a great thread

: )

i love sailing, hubby not so keen, he likes canoes better, but i'm hoping next year when the kids (well most of them) have learnt to swim, i can take a few out in a dingy.

anyone belong to a sailing club?

was a bit intimidated by the mylor sailing club, and pre-children was on to learning RYA level 3.

do you think a sailing club would let me take dc (4, 6) out?

oh, and i've justr read swallows and amazons for the first time ever (30 years young) and i love it.

would love the children to have the same confidence on water.

my dh and his siblings grew up on motor boats and yachts - never fell off. His brother used to just sleep in the moses basket- gently swooshed to sleep by the sound of the sea.

Unfortunately, we sold our boat so can't give any advice here - but the thought of children on it doesn't scare me the least. In fact, can't wait to get one again, so i can say 'oh, we are all going sailing at the weekend' {ponce emoticon}

Great thread. My Dad and i used to sail a mirror every weekend at Felpham, I wanted a fireball but he wasn't up for it .
Have been pondering when is best age to introduce the DC - 7/8? Does anyone's DC go to Sea Scouts?

oohh, sea souts that's a good idea!

there's a branch not far from us in penryn.

will google it!

tooticky - if you are in Somerset there is a sailing club on Durleigh reservoir near where I live who do free sailing days once or twice a year. I keep meaning to take the kids but never got round to it yet.

Casbie, we belong to a yacht club in Devon. It doesn't really mind what we do, we take our children out in our boat. But DP is terribly experienced and theroetically I'm post level 2 sailing and windsurfing. Though that was pre-children, I've regressed rather.

Sailing club was not as intimidating as we thought, quite relaxed and friendly.

We've been focusing on getting ours to be good swimmers before too much watersports instruction, I want them to be really OK with being underwater and falling in. Once they are really competent (dd1 just is at 7) I think the sailing and windsurfing tuition will take off, but DP will do it all, as he teaches it anyway.

this is it. i want our children (6, 4, 2) to learn to swim first and then they can have real safe fun in the water. at the moment they do saturday swim lessons.

trying to tempt them with promise of bodyboards...

the younger two are much happier in the water, but the eldest is still nervous. i can't wait for them to do watersports. i appreciate that i'll have to wait a bit longer though!

blimey the fees to join are a bit steep £130 for a couple and then yearly fees of about £60!!

I think our yacht club is £90 a year family membership + £100 initial joining. Plus more for mooring if you want that. But we moved to Devon partly for the water access and it's on a beautiful estuary 10 mins from home, so worth it for us. DP spends a fortune on watersports equipment anyway.

Mine have been fairly slow at learning to swim. but we are getting there now. and they like to play Swallows and Amazons. (so do DP and I . They hoist a little pirate flag on the boat.

Casbie, try Restronguet sailing club, which confusingly is at Mylor Harbour. Or is that the one you have tried? Also there is a club at Looe Beach which does lessons.

this is where i was aiming for my RYA Level 3 dingy sailing thingy at college.

mega busy, but nice part of carrick roads to sail from.

dramaqueen - prices are a lot better for membership, but do they have dingys available for members? can't quite find it on the website.

Looe beach does have boats for hire. I'm not sure what, but have defintely seen sailing dinghies hired there. I'm not sure if it is part of the sailing club or not though. If you go down there, there is a cafe. Next to the cafe is a hut with loads of sailing stuff outside. That is where they run the courses and hire boats from.

i've been meaning to investigate loe beach, nr feock, but never got round to it.

will try and look in on weekend.

still think that maybe the helford river one would be easier for us as we live out that way and if there was boats to hire, then we could ride out there if parking is a problem.

mylor is a bit further on and feock is even further.

maybe go in a dingy on my own before taking kids?