Sailing with kids

took my first lad out when he was 18 months in a fun cat at Abersoch, F2-3 breeze ... he was comfortable out of his depth in water at the swimming baths, and I feathered the sail a lot and kept in to the shore ... my old club stipulated that they needed to be able to swim 25m confidently

i now regularly sail with the two of them (age 2 and 4, only one at a time) in my Laser 3000 in light winds ... Aaron, the eldest, crewed his first 1-day open meeting at Burghfield last weekend

the 3000 could be a good choice if you're proficient, as it's relatively underpowered and good for single-handing, hiking or trapezing ... a versatile boat

a Mirror would be another good option if you mainly intend to sail with your lad

general advice would be it depends on how capable and confident you are yourself (at sailing and swimming), how protected the water is, and what safety cover you have ... don't cut corners on the life jacket and wetsuit, get good ones that fit correctly, even if they'll only last a season or two

most important, be sure it's fun for the kid ... if he's frightened it could have the opposite effect to what you're looking for

i gave Aaron and Tom the trapeze elastic in their early days ... certainly wasn't trapezing conditions and made them think they were doing something

Aaron's helming was a bit erratic at 3 yrs ... snaking course and unintentional S-gybes, but he enjoyed it

crewing last weekend, Aaron worked out for himself at 4 yrs to pick up the opposite sheet when I said I was about to tack, and waited for the jib to flap before pulling it across ... better than many adult crews I could name