We're due in June and would like to hear from people who have experience
sailing with a 0-4 month old. Pros, cons, advice and warnings as well as any
product suggestions to purchase are greatly appreciated. We have had
fabulous feedback from our vessel-specific forum and wanted to tap the
veterans here as well.

(Please no stories about how your son started sailing with you at age 6.
Infants only please!)

Thanks so much,

Jay & Michelle
s/v Elixir
Buzzards Bay

Miech wrote:
Not a personal experience, but one I saw at my YC. When the kid is 4
months or so hang a Jolly Jumper from the cabin top and put the kid in
it. Then heel all you want and the kid will never notice.


We're due in June and would like to hear from people who have experience
sailing with a 0-4 month old. Pros, cons, advice and warnings as well as any
product suggestions to purchase are greatly appreciated. We have had
fabulous feedback from our vessel-specific forum and wanted to tap the
veterans here as well.

(Please no stories about how your son started sailing with you at age 6.
Infants only please!)

Thanks so much,

Jay & Michelle
s/v Elixir
Buzzards Bay

Miech wrote:
We're due in June and would like to hear from people who have experience
sailing with a 0-4 month old. Pros, cons, advice and warnings as well as any
product suggestions to purchase are greatly appreciated. We have had
fabulous feedback from our vessel-specific forum and wanted to tap the
veterans here as well.

I wouldn't do it. That's what grandparents are for.....
A break for you and a treat for them...chance to get close to the little
nipper.

"Miech" wrote in
:

cons,

NOONE who can't SWIM belongs in a boat, adults or, especially that little
baby....

Test it out, "Worst Case Scenario".....put him in whatever PFD you've got
and throw him over the side of the dock. Think he'll "make it"? How will
you feel when he drowns? You can't save him. Hell, adults are lucky just
saving THEMSELVES! The waves at the dock aren't even 5' swells.

I agree with the other poster.....Leave him with grandparents until he can
swim two lengths of the pool. Babies have no business in a boat which may
sink.....neither do non-swimmer adults.

A man drown, just yesterday, when he fell out of a small fishing boat in
the Stono River near Charleston. Two reasons he drowned....no
PFD...couldn't swim. As narrow as the Stono River is all the way to
Kiawah, if he could swim he didn't need a PFD. He could swim TO SHORE! He
was 53 years old, alone and should have known better. His boat was fine
floating with the tide. He simply fell out of it while fishing.

Please leave the baby with grandma.....for me?

On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 14:21:58 -0400, Larry W4CSC
wrote:

Please leave the baby with grandma.....for me?

All grandmas are dead, alas. My sister and my wife's brother are 40
miles away and we don't have a car...we have a boat and a nearly paid
off mortgage because we don't have a car G and we intend to go
cruising while still young, or in my case, youngish for cruising.

You do what you can, Larry. My kid is learning to swim this year and
is very agile and safety-conscious on the boat, as are we. Is the
danger of being on the boat balanced by the danger he doesn't
experience being driven ten miles a day in a big city? Can't say, but
for now, he comes with us and we sail as safely as we can.

R.

rhys wrote in
:

You do what you can, Larry. My kid is learning to swim this year and
is very agile and safety-conscious on the boat, as are we. Is the


Excellent care. But, alas, they are taking a tiny baby to sea. The baby
cannot appreciate or comprehend anything about being on the boat, so we're
not giving him/her the experience of a lifetime. What we ARE doing is
placing the baby in danger. The baby can't swim and the parents can't save
the baby if the boat sinks because they may not be able to save themselves.
Oh, I've read all these wonderful stories of the baby that's been to sea
since he was 5 days old. But, it only has to happen just ONCE. The baby
lost at sea, the parents survive...but to what? They've killed their baby.
How awful that must feel, no matter how macho their stupid asses are.....

When the child is fully concious as to his surroundings, has learned to
swim the length of the pool and is large enough to wear a proper
PFD....then, and only then, should the child be on a boat.

But not a defenseless, helpless baby!

How stupid.....disgusting. They put the child in danger just so they don't
have to sacrifice their own pleasure..... The baby and the nursing mother
belong at home.

Larry W4CSC wrote:

rhys wrote in
:


You do what you can, Larry. My kid is learning to swim this year and
is very agile and safety-conscious on the boat, as are we. Is the



Excellent care. But, alas, they are taking a tiny baby to sea. The baby
cannot appreciate or comprehend anything about being on the boat, so we're
not giving him/her the experience of a lifetime. What we ARE doing is
placing the baby in danger. The baby can't swim and the parents can't save
the baby if the boat sinks because they may not be able to save themselves.
Oh, I've read all these wonderful stories of the baby that's been to sea
since he was 5 days old. But, it only has to happen just ONCE. The baby
lost at sea, the parents survive...but to what? They've killed their baby.
How awful that must feel, no matter how macho their stupid asses are.....

When the child is fully concious as to his surroundings, has learned to
swim the length of the pool and is large enough to wear a proper
PFD....then, and only then, should the child be on a boat.

But not a defenseless, helpless baby!

How stupid.....disgusting. They put the child in danger just so they don't
have to sacrifice their own pleasure..... The baby and the nursing mother
belong at home.

And how long should they wait before bringing a baby home to a normal
house? Right outside the door are dangerous roads and highways!

Stephen

Stephen Trapani wrote in
:

And how long should they wait before bringing a baby home to a normal
house? Right outside the door are dangerous roads and highways!

Stephen



What's this? Denial?

Being on a boat is much more dangerous, especially to a defenseless infant,
than riding in a carseat.

It's not just the water...I've never fallen overboard in years of
sailing......but I did get hit in the head by a boom on a Mirage 33 when
the skipper gibed without notice, and I was thrown into the end of the
boom scratching my glasses when the helmsman ran us aground on another
occasion. I also chipped my oldest son's front tooth at age 5. He was
playing in the cabin of my smaller centerboard weekend style sailboat
and lost his balance when I tacked. Sh*t happens.

Have any kids, Larry?

I had two, now I have one. Lost the second @ 4 yrs to drowning in his
grandparent's backyard swimming pool. S*it does happen, even in the home
environment. We, his parents, did survive, overcame the horrors of guilt,
and have a healthy life.

The point? Babies need care and supervision everywhere, all the time. This
can be provided almost anywhere, including on a sailboat. Avoiding sailing
because of uncontrollable catastrophes is like refusing to ride in an
automobile because of the annual highway death toll. OTOH, providing a
child with the confined and continual care a cruising lifestyle encompasses
has considerable advantages over tot-care, traffic, neighborhood crime,
suburban rat-racing, TV, mall crawlers, and backyard swimming pools.

Padeen


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
rhys wrote in
:

You do what you can, Larry. My kid is learning to swim this year and
is very agile and safety-conscious on the boat, as are we. Is the


Excellent care. But, alas, they are taking a tiny baby to sea. The baby
cannot appreciate or comprehend anything about being on the boat, so we're
not giving him/her the experience of a lifetime. What we ARE doing is
placing the baby in danger. The baby can't swim and the parents can't
save
the baby if the boat sinks because they may not be able to save
themselves.
Oh, I've read all these wonderful stories of the baby that's been to sea
since he was 5 days old. But, it only has to happen just ONCE. The baby
lost at sea, the parents survive...but to what? They've killed their
baby.
How awful that must feel, no matter how macho their stupid asses are.....

When the child is fully concious as to his surroundings, has learned to
swim the length of the pool and is large enough to wear a proper
PFD....then, and only then, should the child be on a boat.

But not a defenseless, helpless baby!

How stupid.....disgusting. They put the child in danger just so they
don't
have to sacrifice their own pleasure..... The baby and the nursing mother
belong at home.