Chloe & Connor back in 2011

Junior Sailing Skills

Here’s some great ways to prepare your kids for sailing and life at sea.

  • Get them comfortable in the water. 
    • Take swimming lessons.
    • Help them practice swimming with a mask on.
    • Practice breath holding every night before bed.
  • Practice these boat skills on dry land with your kids:
    • Taking a “Navy Shower”
    • Turning water on and then off while brushing teeth and washing hands.
    • Turning lights off when not using them
    • Getting in and out of a life jacket properly.
  • DRILLS.  We love to teach kids to be confident in their seas skills by hosting some fun impromtu drills.
    • Life Jacket jump-in drill. We’ll show your children how to hold their life-jacket by pulling down gently on the collar while they jump and provide a safe time to practice this so they feel comfortable with how their personal floatation devise works and why their whistle is an important piece of gear. Prepped kids are confident kids.
    • The 30 second life-jacket drill. It’s fun way to build a valuable skill. Once a “JACKET DRILL!” is called, everyone has 60 seconds to show up on the cockpit deck with their jacket properly belted on.
  • Help them learn the different parts of a sailboat.
  • Give them some line and teach them a few knots. Visit our knot page for links to some great videos to help you out.
  • Teach them the early signs of sea sickness, how to avoid feeling sick while underway, and what to do if they start feeling queasy. Visit our the section on seasickness on our Life Aboard page.

Saltwater makes everything better.

Our two youngest kids were still around when we started sailing again. Life on a boat is full of adventure but it was also an amazing learning experience for them. Living so close to nature, everything about life became technicolor. They soaked up amazing lessons about the ocean, weather, sea life, knot tying, breath holding, trusting each other, and working hard to share the responsibilities of life aboard. Life at sea is a great opportunity for kids to challenge themselves in so many ways.

Our son Connor’s first car was a dingy. It was always torture coming back to land because it meant his driving privileges got revoked. Life at sea put him in the driver’s seat.