INVESTIGATOR 563

A proud day, today. My two eldest grand-daughters went sailing with me. They are 6 and 5 years of age. I wanted them to like my recreation and sport.

It was about 15 knots of breeze and being a lake populated with speed boats etc quite lumpy. "It's a bit bumpy Grand-Dad," said one.

Initially we sailed with the third reef in. Yes I have three. I had expected to use this reef point with the motor to motorsail but the last thing I wanted was that the girls be scared silly. Have to say there wasn't much drive from such a small bit of sail and not much ability to work to windward, but it kept things settled and the girls liked reaching back and forth. I let them steer. One was quite good at this.

So after about an hour I thought let's put out the headsail just before we go in. They loved it when the boat powered up and heeled over and my eldest grandchild was steering. She even understood about dropping away when the headsail began to flap.

Getting this right was very important to me. I wanted the girls to like sailing.

Any other stories about initiation out there.

I've got a 3 year old and a 6 month old who both just spent New Years out on Sydney harbour no problems (both sleeping in PFDs not bothered at all - see pics!). I've also got friends who have raised their kids from birth on a (40ft) sailing boat. Safer on Parramatta river than Parramatta road and that's a fact.

Having said that proper sailing with a 3 year old boy is near impossible without my wife or others helping control him. The way my jib cleats are positioned he can't help but tug the sheets out and watch the jib fly off the boat. Mostly I motor around with him at the moment, looking forward to when he gets a little older and can appreciate whats going on.

https://www.facebook.com/lawanddisorder ... =3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/lawanddisorder ... =3&theater

the kids will always remember it with a smile on there faces.

Good work Peter and others. My daughters grew up on our old cruiser and still love boats. I have not yet been blessed with grandkids but I'll do my best to give them a love of watercraft. My old kayak is now nearly 42 years old and will hopefully soon serve a third generation as their first command of their own boat.

With kids or adult newbies on spritzig II I usually give then the jib sheet as well as the the tiller so they have control of the heel that way as well. Usually builds confidence quickly. My wife on the other hand is not happy till the gunnels are underwater and usually scares me!

I remembered this thread from a few years ago and searched it up as my (now) 6 year old has been getting more interested in sailing. Hes already (terrifyingly) confident on his Kayak and has joined the sea scouts so I figured it was about time he started learning the basics and some steering.

He has been out once a few months ago on the Adams 10.6 I crew on for twilights, loved it for the first 15mins then gets bored and generally gets in the way. I think i'll re-attempt this next year and see if his attention span lasts a bit longer.

As for sailing our Investigator I first hooked up the 55lbs trolling motor to our inflatable tender and took him for a run around Hen and Chicken bay letting him steer, control the speed and generally get a feel for how the tiller points the opposite of direction you want to go. We spent a good 2 hours zooming in and out of moorings and even ventured into traffic on the river. He got pretty confident.

Following that (a few days later) we took him out on the I563. The wind was blowing east at 10kts so we sailed upwind to Cockatoo Island before turning around to run home. Each tack we tried to get him involved with jib, timing the release and then pulling on and cleating with a little bit of help. Once we got up around the corner to Gladesville Bridge the opportunity for a nice long broad reach opened up and the little bloke took over and steered us down to searles monument before we had to gybe. Lots of advice from myself and his uncle but overall he did pretty well, a good starting point for future sails. And honestly im looking forward to his transition from passenger to crew

A short video from the bow here: https://www.facebook.com/greg.vanwinden ... 016639018/