if there's one thing that would make a dramatic effect to open and narional attendances then it would finding a way to entertain children/ child care whatever you wanna call it at these events. ideas welcome!

Totally agree. If I could escape from - I mean have trust worthy child care at a reasonable price for our new Sprog we would be at more opens than you could shake an old Chepstow stick at. Sailing all day is less tiring than a 6 month old for an hour, help me! :)

Not found a satisfactory answer to this one aside from the good lady taking a sabatical and me having to find alternative crews. Did suggest that the class underwrite a crèche but definitely felt like I was ploughing a lone furrow. I also discussed the matter with the RYA under their increasing participation remit!

Unless you pay professionals, and maybe even then the likely hurdle to anything formal, is the Child Protection Legislation. It is a minefield.

I'm sure like me a lot of us have been thorough this, some have yet to experience it. I certainly have spent a fortune on baby-sitters and dragged them and small children to open meetings and paid up! The thing here is that Sailing clubs are not very interesting places for under 8's and young people looking after them. I saw that they were bored witless and concluded that the consequences were likely to be that they would associate sailing with this experience into their developing childhood…. I have seen many children of good sailors who never go near a boat or the water... I decided to try and get them interested in sailing in all its forms and suffer missing some events. I think the outcome was a good one and I can now share the joys of our great sport and have something in common across the generation. The last thing I would do is to give advice,( it could be too controversial!) but I thought I would share my experience for what it’s worth.

What are you thinking JG?

Definitely make life smoother...Can't be beyond the imagination to organise group child care though the legality would be a hurdle, I guess.

Sadly Jim is correct - any childcare group would be smothered by regulation, that apart, how would it transfer from venue to venue. Whilst, in the land of common sense, informal cover should be capable of being provided,you have to ask what happens and who cops for it if something should go horribly wrong.As the saying goes' where there is blame there is a claim'

Think what the coroner would say!

Ahah regs! 
 
What if it was managed in a much more informal way. So you aren't paying someone - but a few merlin sailors take it in turns to look after a group of friends kids and look at running some safe activities on a rota prog so it is not just the same people doing it all the time (which wouldn't be much fun). I would happily take a turn. 

Who would be up for that?

love the idea of 'social-enterprise' child care, as per last post, but consider how quickly people might fall out when you break one of the children!  It is possible to do this but the whole legal agenda around safeguarding exposes individuals to enormous risk in such an undertaking; a risk I wouldn't take and I wouldn't advise anyone else to either.  The world has gone mad...

The answer is to be very old like me so kids long gone.....

The answer is to be very old like me so kids long gone.....

What about cages. We could then take it in turns to poke food through the bars at pre agreed times. Watch your fingers!
There has got to be some qualified nursery that we may be able to group book for the day in a location that suits a number of us. In the long term it may end up being one more reason to sail a Merlin and drive more interest.

#firstworldproblems

Could the class subsidise a nanny service??

That might be a bit of a stretch ,I think, but could we not (collectively) look at nursery provision  local to Open meetings and see if we could pay them to open for a day or make some such an arrangement with an existing childcare setting?

For the price of a Merlin, you can get some very good 4-berth cruisers. Take your family sailing with you for a few years. Let them experience sailing and family life. Then, when they are 8 or 9 put them in an Opie, you can sell the cruiser and get back into dinghies again: but it wont be a Merlin as you will have put on too much weight!!

You could always stick them in the front of a national 12. Don't stick them in an oppie what ever you do. You then have to give up sailing and forget all you have ever known about it and be obnoxious to all other water users.