Boating Basics: Family boating, affordable boats and having fun

It is true what they say — the family that plays together really does stay together. I repeat this phrase not through laziness but out of first-hand experience. Take it from me, it’s entirely possible to have a rollicking time aboard with a couple of high-maintenance minnows. After all, we’ve been happily boating since our nine-year-old daughter was two weeks old. Now there’s a troublesome five-year boy in the mix who has been aboard since he fitted in the galley sink.

Of course, it helps that we have a cruiser or yacht with all the mod cons just like home. This allows one to spend days and nights, even weeks aboard at a time. A boating week on a big waterway really does create a family holiday to remember. You’ll come away closer than before, richer from the new and exciting experiences, and itching to cast the lines and those other lines to catch some fresh fish for dinner again.

The downsides are that you may find yourself sharing the same cabin; the soft furnishings and finishes cop a hiding; and you go through litres more freshwater. You might also be constrained from doing all the truly adventurous things you did before. For most pleasure boaters this requires some adjustment to your offshore boating and sailing dial. Reel it back to kid (and mum) comfortable levels.

But there is most certainly joy to be found from boating with your family aboard. By all means head offshore when the seas are calm, but cruise the inshore waterways more often. Be weatherwise, seek-out the protected anchorages by day and especially night, or set-up camp and pull the boats ashore. Never let your guard down and keep your eyes on the tykes 24/7. Boats have a lot of machinery and accessible electrical ports.

Ensure your small fry have proper fitting lifejackets, enrol them in swimming lessons ASAP, and run some man-overboard drills once they’re able to tread water and swim. When anchored, deploy watertoys and a mermaid line — a decent length of floating rope dotted with bright floats. Make a loop or attach a lifebuoy or lifejacket at the end.

Take your budding crew to the shore by day, swim and splash, build sandcastles, comb the beaches, stage a picnic in the shade of some she-oaks, take a short bush trek. Treat them to the odd seaside fish-and-chips and holler the ice-cream boat when it rings its bell. Otherwise, catch your own. Kids have short attention spans so target the tiddlers.

Trapping crabs is a hoot — ditto pumping nippers ashore at low tide  — and do teach your kids about the dangers of snapping claws, stingrays, oysters, jellyfish and sunburn. Set up camp in summer with a beach tent, portable cooler and lunch. Try a beach barbecue dinner for a real treat. Don't forget the marshmallows for toasting. After which come long zeds.

We’ve cruised the coast with our young family aboard, surviving hours of passage-making to reach postcard places like Fraser Island, Jervis Bay, Port Stephens, Yamba and more. Yet the big adventure can be lost on young minds. Don’t burden yourself with unnecessary risk and look at the world through their wide, innocent eyes.

Family boating brings the opportunity to re-immerse yourself and re-acquaint your love of boating in your backyard. Every big-city waterway offers a sense of escapism around some bend, across the bay, upriver and upstream. Let your kids play Huck Finn or Hiawatha in the backwaters. Find your favourite boltholes and beaches and also be aware of the need for social interaction. Let them invite friends to your boat (we always like the good swimmers for summer play).

A popular boat-only accessible anchorage shared with like-minded family boaters is a wonderful thing. Remember: happy kids make happy parents. Perhaps you’ll make friends too, rafting with members from your boating club while the rug rats share toys? Pleasure boating is a terrific social activity if you want it to be.

But you don’t need a big boat to have a family affair. Get the budding bosuns aboard in a learn-to-sail program and watch their confidence grow. Buy a two-man kayak and paddle the flat water before grabbing a burger to go. Or do as my grandparents did and take the 12ft tinnie and kids on a calm lake for fun.

A Quintrex 420 Busta open tinnie with 30hp on trailer will cost you $45 a week and, for a kid, a 14-footer with a flat floor is a big boat.

So here's a great beginner boating tip: get the family afloat and go find some memories. Of course, this boat-show season is a great time to buy. If not a new boat, here are more than 2000 preloved
boats for sale from $10k-$20k on our sites.

Oh, and don't forget the affordable family yachting options. Just tether the kids when reaching and run some netting around the lifelines to help keep them on deck. Kids are adaptable and impressionable and what you do in their formative years will shape their future.