look around your local yacht clubs and join one that has a kids program .

if you join, then your kids will get the benifit.

depending where you live and what sailing club you want to go to has the biggest effect on all your questions, time wise it will be anywhere between a couple of hours and half a day, as for clubs well where to start i can list all the club i can think of that have a junior program, Hilarys sailing club, Fremantle sailing club, east fremantle sailing club, royal freshwater bay yacht club, nedlands yacht club, south of perth yacht club, mounts bay yacht club, royal perth yacht club, perth dinghy sailing club, shelley sailing club, the cruising yacht club (rockingham), mandurah offshore fishing and sailing club just to name a few. each club will have it's own classes for progression, once again there is many different kid friendly classes, but here there are 3 main classes for young kids optimists, open bic and mudlark, i would recommend mudlarks for younger or smaller kids as they are smaller with less sail area. also there is cost of membership, generally the more cruiser oriented clubs are more expensive such as sopyc, rpyc and rfbyc where as the volinteer familly oriented clubs are relatively cheap. don't be afraid to go to any of these clubs and others during the season there are plenty of people around to give you an idea of how things work at their club

Bento said...

I am thinking of getting the kids into sailing when they get a bit older (eldest 5yrs)
Looks like a nice summer sport
We live in Perth, anyone have any experience with this.
Also how much of the day does it take up, its not like cricket?

I would reccommed you wait a year or two yet and then approch your local club. At East Fremantle we have our own training fleet of Open Bic's with courses, we also will lease you a boat after the course to see if your kids will carry on with the sport before you spend out money on a boat.

If you want to find out more then call the EFYC office on 9339 8111.

Bento said...

andrew1996 said...

If you get your kids sailing they will love you forever for it

Why do you love it so much?

I like the fact it will teach them about the seas/rivers, wind, etc.

I want them to have passion for the ocean and wind.

The alternative summer sports are teeball, tennis and golf. Just weighing up options for them. I have no sailing club experience.

I love it because not only is it just a sport where you can try and go as fast as possible; it is also a great way to socialise, you could go out and have a day sail with some friends; it is also a carbon neutral hobby; it can be a great way to relax; if you hire or own your boat, it is a good way to learn responsibility for belongings; you learn handy trades whilst maintaining your boat; there is also a science involved in learning to sail; and there is also some strange euphoria that people get when near boats; and that is all I can think of for now, but I am sure there are plenty more reasons why I enjoy it.

kids need to be a decent size before they should be going into bics, mudlarks suit much smaller kids but it is important they are not too young first impressions are important, it's just all about asking around at the clubs

I would like to dispute your claim about the open bic vs mudlark, as the Bic has a choice of two sails and at the sailing school we use the smaller sail and then when they lease the boat they start with the smaller sail then move onto the larger sail. The Mudlark is also a very good training boat, so both would be fine.