guest´s kids on board

"Kids" is a pretty generic descriptor.

All different abilities and behaviors. If not sure about friends kids, I would have then over to the boat and dock for a trial run before taking them underway on a serious trip. I may take them around the harbor and return the first sign of issues, but hopefully would have a good idea prior to getting underway about the "kids" a different parents.

Having many years as a parent and Boy Scout leader...guessing kid behavior is like looking into a crystal ball, yet a few tidbits can set the tone.

Skinny said:

You'd feel my pain if you could actually get someone interested in going on a date at this point only to hear that their hobbies are taking pictures, listening to music, and hanging out with friends.

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You said you are a pilot. I got all my landplane ratings-- Private, Commercial, Instrument, Flight Instructor--- in Hawaii. I used to (jokingly) tell my friends that airplanes scared the sh*t out of me, but they were a great way to pick up girls.

And it was true. Once I got my Private, just about every first date I had with a girl was a ride in a plane. I'd take them to either Maui or Kauai, rent a car, drive around and see stuff all day, and then fly back to Honolulu.

I'd meet a girl on a shoot-- one of the models if it was a fashion shoot, or a girl working in the background if it was a commercial for a bank or something--- strike up a conversation and drop in that I was a pilot and had she ever been in a small plane before. The answer was invariably no. So I'd ask her if she'd like to go for a ride. The answer was invariably yes.

After I moved here and got my seaplane rating, I began doing exactly the same thing. My first date with the girl who is now my wife was a flight to the San Juan islands for lunch in a Cessna 180 on floats.

A big advantage I had in Hawaii was the weather was almost always great for flying. So it was a ploy I could use year-round. Add to that the "glamor" of going to an island they'd almost always not been to yet, and it was an offer that was pretty hard to resist.

The best place was Kauai, about a hundred miles from Oahu, where there's an old WWII fighter strip right next to a beautiful beach park. Back then I mostly flew a Cessna 206, so the flight took about 45 minutes. Fly over, park the plane on the grass next to the beach, go swimming, sit on the beach, get lunch from the roach coach in the parking lot, swim some more, go for a walk, etc., etc., etc., and then fly home just before sunset. A day like that never failed to totally blow the girl away.

So, put your pilot's license to work for you.

Marin said:

Don't know where that figure came from. The most people we have ever had on our boat at the same time is eight including ourselves, when we took people I used to work with in television in Hawaii who've moved here on a picnic run to Sucia island. It was a bit of an Elvis Preseley reunion--- three of us had run cameras on Elvis' live from Hawaii concert way back when.

Oh, I just realized you are probably thinking of the number of friends we have in total who we would consider taking out on our boat as guests on a cruise. So yes, you are correct although the number has increased a bit as a result of Amanda's marriage and the daughter and son-in-law of friends I worked with in Hawaii moving to this area. So now it's 17.

My comment on kids today is not based on the children of just our small circle of close friends. They are mostly grown or in college now, anyway.

It's based on what we see around us everywhere we go-- restaurants, stores, on planes, at airports, etc. Based on the behavior we see exhibited in these public places, today's kids-- by which I mean children up to their early teens perhaps--- for the most part appear to be a giant pain in the ass. The credit for which we give to the parents.

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sounds like you dont have any kids??? if not its a great experaince

We chose not to have children for a reason......it certainly wasn't so we could deal with other people's children. Most of our friends have children. We offer our friends a relaxing time on the boat while their children enjoy their time with someone else. We did have my nieces on the boat once. They asked if they could go out on the forward deck. I pointed out the hatches and had them stick their head in to see down below. I WARNED them to be careful around the hatches and watch their step because they could fall in. 20 minutes later one of them fell through the hatch. Fortunately it was the forward hatch over the forward berth and it was a short, well padded fall. It doesn't matter how comprehensive the training lecture, kids are idiots.

The real issue is they grow up to be the same description without guidance and experience.

I have no problem with not having children, or not allowing them on your boat.

But like all kinds of leadership, supervision, mentoring, parenting, etc...etc....It takes guts and effort. If you don't want to put it out.....no harm no foul.

My kids grew up around boats and docks (I was living aboard while they lived with mom) and many other extremely dangerous things. It took a lot of effort to ensure their safety and experiences and both are extremely good and successful at whatever they do.

I was a kid...and I wasn't an idiot. But I'll give some latitude and guess that the term "idiot" is being used in a light manner and not in it's full force.

Shrew said:

kids are idiots.

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That seems to be a common opinion by those who chose for their own reasons not to have kids. Do you have pets? I'm just curious as it seems commonplace for childless couples to fill that void with one or more animals.

I taught Automotive Technology for 10 years, 4 of which was at the post-secondary level. Kids (including High Schoolers) could break an anvil.


So if you take dates out on regular flights, would this be considered a commercial operation by the FAA and require extensive amounts of certificates, flight time, and testing??? I think it falls under FAR69.69


Seriously Marin, it sounds like your entire life was when 100LL was under $3 a gallon. I will tell you that with my current salary (pretty much nothing being in a start up company now) that $5 a gallon will end my life and any boating hobby pretty fast. That is why I like my Mainship. Can't shake a stick at $10-12 an hour for fuel. But realistically, if I ever got behind the stick (prefer a yoke), I'm afraid my brain will confuse it with some type of addictive drug which will proceed to empty my wallet. I will have a new endorsement to show for it! Some of my fondest memories (can I say that at my age?) are screaming the stall warning right above the ground trying to play the game "Lets see if I can make the first taxi way".


I'm lucky to get past a cup of coffee with most dates. Not much to offer and trying to lay some serious amount of pipe will cause you to be broke, feel hangover pain, and more than likely will get you a trip to the clinic at some questionable point. Sure does build flight time though

capt jerry said:

sounds like you dont have any kids??? if not its a great experaince

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No. We have a dog (this also answers FlyWright's question). A lot cheaper, does what you want it to do when you want it to do it, always fun to have around, doesn't argue with you over stuff that doesn't matter, and is loyal to you its whole life. And when you get old it won't cook up a scheme to get all your money while parking you in an old folks home out of sight and out of mind.

My wife and I have never really seen the appeal of kids, and there are too many other things we've wanted to do and experience. Kids would have kept a lot of that from happening.

I know all about how children are their own reward and having them is a wonderful experience, and that's great for the folks who feel that way. I certainly don't feel that having kids is a bad thing or people are stupid for having them, or anything like that. The videographer I work most with has three children; the older two are out of college and the youngest is still in it. Their parents did a great job-- the mother quit work with the birth of the first one and did not go back to work until the last one was in high school--- and all three of their children are well on their way to what I know will be extremely successful lives.

But you only go around once, and having kids is an experience we've simply had no intrest in having. Of our closer friend's kids, there has only been one who we considered to be a really neat person when she was a kid, and that's the girl in the photo. The rest of them were, for the most part, a pain in the ass most of the time. And, as they entered adulthood, that's kind of how they turned out.

Skinny said:

So if you take dates out on regular flights, would this be considered a commercial operation by the FAA and require extensive amounts of certificates, flight time, and testing??? I think it falls under FAR69.69

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Well, if it does, nobody ever told me. And one of the girls I dated for a bit was the daughter of the senior FAA official in Hawaii at the time. He liked the fact I had an instrument rating, but other than that certification and the FARs never came up.

Skinny...Do you know Jesse Toppen?...I think he flew out of that area for a few years...Now an executive jet pilot flying for a family,, Son of a friend of mine!

Skinny said:

Seriously Marin, it sounds like your entire life was when 100LL was under $3 a gallon.

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No, my life's not over and I still fly on occasion, but not nearly as much as I used to. Partly because of my work schedule, partly because these days we tend to use the boats more than fly, and partly because our planes are currently leased out in Canada. And I haven't had to fly on dates for some 27 years now.

Be it boating or flying, the price of fuel is almost irrrelevant, it's such a small part of the overall expense of owning a boat or a plane. When we used to fly up the Stikine River into the interior of BC, we would sometimes have to buy fuel from the operator on Sawmill Lake at Telegraph Creek, a little community on the river. Even in the mid-1980s, avgas was about $5 a gallon from this guy because it all had to be trucked in. And with an airplane that burns about 23 gph in cruise, it made for some expensive fill-ups. But compared to the overall cost of owning the plane, those fill-ups were a drop in the bucket, just as they are with the boats.

We love having kids on board. Sure you set the rules, but getting them involved in boating and life on the water is a real joy. The look on a kid's face when you hand them the helm, be it the big boat or the Whaler? Priceless!

I don't, I learned to fly up in New England. I'm a transplant to Wilmington of about 3 months now.


Fuel in a Cessna 172 is about half the operating cost and the whole Cessna 172 operating cost is about half of a teacher's operating cost


I guess it's all relevant, but fuel surcharges never help...

All of my children have brought guests aboard. Family friends have brought their children aboard too and believe it or not nobody died and the boat still floats.

Enjoy your boats any way you wish but don't assume your boat will catch fire just because you allowed a child aboard. As has been pointed out here already, seeing them light up may soften your heart. Might even inspire the next generation of boaters.

Skinny, I think that`s the first use of TF as an intro service. Good luck. Maybe add to your profile "moonlit beach walks, intimate dinners, country drives", kind of thing.
Back to kids on boats. Know the kids you expect and supervise, supervise, supervise. Carry the requisite number of kid sized life jackets.

Hey , different strokes.....as they say....

But we were all kids once whether we were idiots or PIAs.....

The people I respect in life are the ones that gave me the gifts of knowledge, fortitude, honor, respect, etc.

I have passed those along by serving in at least one career of serving and saving others.

I'm glad my boys are doing the same....and it's a better world because of them.

I am happy to have passed along the gift of boating also.

Having at least the number of adults equal to or greater than under-sixteen-year-olds is helpful.

Skinny said:

Fuel in a Cessna 172 is about half the operating cost...
.

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Boat, plane, or vehicle, there is a pretty significant difference between operating cost and ownership cost. In my earlier post I was relating fuel cost to ownership cost, not operating cost.

psneeld said:

I am happy to have passed along the gift of boating also.

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True that.....I remember distinctly the day we went to pick up our first saiboat....I was 4 yrs old. I'm 65 now. My dad taught me boating, I taught my kids......How could you ever not think of welcoming kids on board?
When my son was four (after many boating weekends of Jimmy Buffet on the stereo) he chirped up and said "Hey Dad, I'm a son of a son of a sailor"....

Needless to say I teared up a bit....Nuff said....

One related side-note: Something about my boat knocks out kids after about an hour or two of running. Maybe the purr of the engine, who knows. I've got a futon in the salon and invariably there ends up a pile of kids completely zonked out. Kind of warms the heart.

And yes, I have a CO monitor, it's not that!!!

Ski in NC said:

One related side-note: Something about my boat knocks out kids after about an hour or two of running. Maybe the purr of the engine, who knows. I've got a futon in the salon and invariably there ends up a pile of kids completely zonked out. Kind of warms the heart.

And yes, I have a CO monitor, it's not that!!!

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My Navy son used to crash on the bench in front of the helm on the flying bridge.

Now he has another 1000 feet of USS George Washington to nap on when he's not crewing H60s.

Guests kids? Ha! It's my kids i have to worry about. Both boys and the dog have fallen in this year (while at the dock)

Skinny
do not let bruce fool you we all let our posts impress the ladys or advertise for them

mine just happens to be around for 30+ years but I still love impressing her

coffee in bed for the last 25 years does not do it alone

Wifey B: While we don't have kids we do love them. It's one thing not to have them, but some of the strong dislike, calling them idiots, and just hateful comments here on kids shocks the h... out of me.

We set rules for the parents and the kids. Rule #1. On the boat the captain is in charge.

Rule #2. Refer to rule #1.

The captain tells the kids what to do and not do and tells the parents what they can and can't do and how to keep them under control. Any problem the Captain stops the boat, The captain can remove them, ask them to leave. Now we've never had that happen because we've never had problems. Of course the fact I taught and typically had to handle 30 kids with no other adult might have something to do with it. Be captain of your own ship.

But if you can't stand kids then very smart not to have them on your boat. Would be very wrong for you and for them. But I'll tell you most kids are very good. Better than the so-called adults.

The T-shirt given to Giggitoni yesterday has the same thought.

Kids, have one and know the day is coming when he'll want to bring a friend. He knows the boat rules. Has grown up in a boat (not living aboard) from about two weeks. He is a child, we do have to remind him when on the cockpit always wear the life jacket. Don't lean over the rails. Isn't allowed up in the helm seating unless with an adult. Not allowed forward of the cockpit outside. Is told to be quite when coming into dock and leaving.

Now for others,
I have a safety briefing - break the rules and you don't go out again with me. So far no one has broken the rules.
When we have other children aboard they will be expected to follow the boat rules. I will go over them in detail. Should they break any of them, see the above for breaking the rules.

bligh said:

Guests kids? Ha! It's my kids i have to worry about. Both boys and the dog have fallen in this year (while at the dock)

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I'm not surprised, based on your Avatar. I suggest you use a boat where you can walk along the deck without getting your feet wet......

bshillam said:

Kids, have one and know the day is coming when he'll want to bring a friend. He knows the boat rules. Has grown up in a boat (not living aboard) from about two weeks. He is a child, we do have to remind him when on the cockpit always wear the life jacket. Don't lean over the rails. Isn't allowed up in the helm seating unless with an adult. Not allowed forward of the cockpit outside. Is told to be quite when coming into dock and leaving.

Now for others,
I have a safety briefing - break the rules and you don't go out again with me. So far no one has broken the rules.
When we have other children aboard they will be expected to follow the boat rules. I will go over them in detail. Should they break any of them, see the above for breaking the rules.

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We have a thorough briefing on our rules for all new guests regardless of age.

One of the proudest moments as a father was giving my boys a job to do on the beach while we cruised from a anchorage to Fife Sound. They found us a hour or two later navigating Queen Charlotte Strait by themselves.

I'm a strong advocate of wide decks and high-strong railings.