New 146 - tips for a young famly

[ghosthunter]

Hi all

We are the new owners of a new 2008 146. I am new to the brand being from Australia and they don't export the dinghys there. It was a demo and never been in the water. I have sailed a lot as crew through my childhood on dinghys and larger. My husband has little experience but we are excited. Has anyone sailed much with small kids? Our little girl is only 6 months and has a full life jacket, but I was just wanting to know if anyone has sailed with such a little person and what to do with them (like when we capsize!). I am thinking that we will get a bit confident before taking her out of course and we are hoping to get it wet today, so long as the wind dies a bit!

Any tips on anything would be great. We are already looking at replacing some of the pins with quick release pins as I see these getting lost fairly quickly.

We have named the boat Ghost Hunter.....its a long storey really but my dad's Adams 36 is Ghost Dog so everything else in the family seems to be Ghost something. So we thought that was perfect.

Fingers crossed for us getting wet today - we will at least get it rigged a couple of times to make sure we are happy with how to do it.

 

[Rick Webb]

Take a Boating Safety Course

Get with these guys:

http://www.uscgauxflotilla19.org/

Teach the little one to swim and when she is a bit older the St Andrews Yacht club has a good program to teach the little ones to sail.

It is going to ba a good time for all of you

 

[john6206]

G'day Mate!

I have a 170, when I got it the kids were quite young, maybe 6 and 3 years old, maybe 7 and 4; they are now 13 and 10 - but I can't remember how long I have had the boat.

My advise is pick your days for gentle wind - and go on very short trips at first. The 170 can feel very "tippy" if you are not used to it - my guess is the same is true for the 146. If the tenderness makes you feel uneasy multiply by 100 and you will know how your kids feel. I took my kids out in a bit too much wind too quickly and they hated it, and were afraid to sail for some time afterwords. My daughter took sailing lessons when she turned 8 and is now a total speed freak, my son is now 10 and still wants nothing to do with the boat - but I think (hope) we are making progress this year!

I don't think you can go slow enough at first - I think if you are having fun you are probably going too fast for the kids - maybe 15 minutes under sail at 2 knots of breeze for the first couple times out.

Then leave the kids with Aunt Petunia and have fun when the wind picks up.

The kids will want to go out in wind if they have good first experiences.

Your experiences may be different, but if I had it to do over again I would start really slow!

John

 

[john6206]

Hey Ghosthunter,

I just re-read your post.

You only have one child and she is 6 months old?
Perhaps this voids my post.

It seems to me that my kids were afraid of nothing at that age, I know we had my daughter in a canoe at about 18 months and she was fearless. Perhaps this is the perfect age. . .

Then again at 6 months she can't even sit up, she will have to be held - that means hubby is in daddy mode while you are single handing the boat - perhaps it is your husband's nerves that you have to be worried about!

I guess for me, I don't think I would take a 6 month old on so small a boat - these boats heel very quickly. Make sure your husband is comfortable with the heeling and switching sides before he tries to do it with babe in arms! I am not sure I could switch sides or hike out quickly without the use of my arms. It seems a long time since I have had a six month old - perhaps I just don't remember how nimble you can be when the need arises.


John

 

[ghosthunter]

Hi, thanks to all.

We have been having some good sails. Grace (now 8 months) hasn't ventured out yet. Just the adults. In fact my husband has been doing rather well on his own, once we got the setup correct. We may take Grace this weeked, weather pending, but to complicate everything i am now rather large with #2 so it will have to be VERY light.

We are having a lot of trouble with the furlour though. It doesn't unfurl very well. I have played with the rigging tension and of course if it is looser it works fine, but once I tighten up (to something I think is reasonable) it gets stuck and doesn't want to turn well and I have to do it by hand. Any suggestions?? IT also seems to roll much better one way than the other.

The outhaul doesn't seem to hold well either. I have taken to just lashing it to the end of the boom, but of course would like to rectify it. Has anyone installed a regular pulley system to the outhaul? What did you use?

Thanks a lot
Ghosthunter