My children have been on the boat from about 6 months old, that young
I put them in a car seat/ cradle, it was when they started to walk
that the trouble began, at that point had both a lifejacket and
tether on them when they where in the cockpit, generally they liked
to play in the cabin and take a nap. My wife has been happier sense
I got the life rails and double lines, I would recommend them for
your self. That young I had to pick my days(i.e. claim), trim to
minimal heel and only 2 hours+-, I start to make get good a signal
handling after those two hours or when I wanted to go out on some
days with wind. A boat with a head comes in real handy.
MJM
16 Aug 2000
when you see the boat this will make more sense. in the cabin this
is a space between the setae and the mast support bulkhead, their is
a wooden shelf/lid that has the battery under it, the back side is
the entrance to the vberth (about a foot higher). it fitted in their
real nice, about the centreline, and a few buggy cords made sure it
was going no where. My only concern was the car seat would sink like
a rock, around the docks and getting on and off the boat I was very
very careful or carried the child. Also I kept a life jacket on
the boat for the child, you would be unable to both take care of the
child and yourself (in the car seat or carrying) if the worst
happened. The one time I got "caught" the kid was out of the car
seat, in the life jacket, riding it out with mom below.
MJM
18 Aug 2000
My wife and I have sailed regularly with our 6 year old daughter and
9 year old son on our Rhodes since the spring of 99. We've also had
younger children aboard from time to time (in the 3-4 year old range).
We think the boat is extremely safe for sailing with kids. The
cockpit is certainly large enough to contain them, and more
importantly, to continue to contain them when the breeze freshens.
Stern rail is large and reassuring.
We also installed a jackline--rarely used for clipping on, but used a
lot for hanging on. I'd strongly recommend it simply because it gives
kids an easy handhold at every point along the gunnels. When we have
the bimini up (often), there are even more poles to keep everyone
inside the cockpit.
Relatively high freeboard keeps the water out of the cockpit, and
the boat stiffens up somewhere between 15-20 degrees so no big worry
about kids going over the side. At the ages you mention, I think the
key thing is to have an adult able to hang on to the kids if
necessary. I'd consider a car seat arrangement for the 8 month old,
but the 2 1/2 year old would still need close attention. We managed
to toss our six year old under the lee seat on a rough ride last week
(that happened just after we said--"make sure you're holding on"!).
In sum, we think the boat is as safe as can be, but in our view young
children need to be in PFDs at all times, need to have lots of places
to hang on, need to have an eye kept on them.
One final thing:
before the wind and waves pick up, you need to know exactly how the
children will be secured and who's watching whom--we've found that
when conditions fall apart rapidly, it's sometimes a challenge to
monitor the kids while reefing, keeping a lookout, securing a
flapping line or whatever--though at the ages of our kids, they are
becoming fairly self-sufficient and are pretty good about looking
after themselves. Fortunately, with the IMF and roller furling genoa,
all of this is about as simple as it gets on a sailboat.
David and Ellen Dawson
R22 Ardent
Middle River, MD
18 Aug 2000
One other thing I've heard of although I've not tried myself is to
leave the bottom half of the cabin hatch in place and just fold down
the top half. The cabin can then become a very nice and safe play
area for young kids while under sail.
Paul G.
18 Aug 2000
We bought our 1976 Rhodes 22 in the spring of 1987. At the time, I'd
been sailing 8 years & my wife, Deb. had been a sailer for about 4
years. The Rhodes 22 wasn't our 1st sailboat. My wife & I knew what
we wanted in a boat. We looked for a year before finding our Rhodes
22.
1st of all, we live on Sanford Lake in the central lower penninsula
of Michigan. Our boat had to be suitable for the lake we live on.
Sanford Lake is a manmade lake with a surface area of about 6000
acres. Like most manmade lakes, the lake is long & skinny. The
lake's long dimension is oriented basically north/south. Good
windward sailing ability is essential on this lake. There are plenty
of shallow areas & stumps, so shoal draft with kick-up centerboard &
rudder was important. With it sitting in a slip in the backyard all
summer, the boat's major use has always been daysailing. The huge
open cockpit, plenty of on-board storage, large ice chest, 15 gal
on-board water supply, great galley, & on-board head make her a great
daysailer & good for entertaining guests.
In 1987, our two sons Daniel & Gary, were 4 & 1 years old
respectively. Little ones have intrinsically short attention spans &
will tend to spend a lot of time below with their toys. The Rhodes
22 cabin ventilates pretty well to keep it cool & has a couple of
different sleeping areas to keep two little boys separated when it's
nap time. ("That's my side of the bunk...No it isn't!") The main
cabin is very versatile. You can put one kid at the table with a
coloring book & the other one on the cabin sole with his MicroMachine
cars. (I still have at least one MicroMachine rolling around
down in the bilge somewhere!) Or, you can stow the table & open up
the entire main cabin sole. Or, one of them can go quietly read up
in the V-berth. The large amount of cupboards & hatches in the cabin
add to the possibilities for an endless variety of make-believe games. The lower half
of the companionway hatch board can be installed in the hatch & left
open. Now, the cabin is an enclosed playpen & you can see & hear
what's going on down there. Of course, Deb. & I were also concerned
about safety & things like built-in foam floatation, roller furling
sails, good nonskid decks, a good toerail, & the intrinsic safety of
9 stays on the standing rigging were important features.
I frequently went sailing with only Daniel & Gary when they were
little. I'm an engineer & pretty handy at building things. I
designed & built my own set of 30" high double railings from 3/4"
nominal diameter, schedule 40, stainless steel pipe. The boys
quickly learned there were several ironclad rules about life aboard
the boat:
PFD's are always worn on deck - adults & kids - no exceptions. They
could take off their PFD down below in the cabin unless it was very
rough. Wearing PFD's got to be just like putting on a seatbelt in a
car.
When they were little & we were underway, the cockpit was the only
place the boys were allowed without an adult with them. The cockpit
was completely enclosed by my custom-made double railings.
Maybe I was just lucky, but the boys never really balked at these
safety rules. Violation of either rule resulted in instant confinment
down below for the duration of the cruise followed by a week of no
boating when we got back to shore. Each boy "tested" the rules just
once & found that Dad wasn't kidding. They quickly got to policing
each other - things like stopping the other if he forgot to put on
his PFD & started to go topside. Other than sailing on the Great
Lakes when it was really rough, I never had to put them in safety
harnesses to keep them within their boundaries. When it was rough
enough that Dad snapped on his safety harness, believe me, the boy's
eyes were as big as saucers & they wanted their harnesses on right
now!
But, I had bigger plans for our Rhodes 22 & little boys grow up.
Daniel & Gary are currently 17 & 14 years old. We've raced our
Rhodes 22 & cruised it thousands of miles on every Great Lake except
Lake Superior & numerous inland lakes & rivers. For racing, I wanted
good sailing performance, particularly in the predominently light air
we get around here in the summer. I needed good trailerability.
When the boys were young, I needed the ability to step & unstep the
mast singlehanded. Now, with the boys in their teens, we're into
hard core wilderness beach camping. We need a boat that is truely
seaworthy & capable of being self sufficient for periods of a week or
more. The standing headroom under the poptop, large water supply,
pop top canvas enclosure, enclosed standing headroom boom room, &
great galley make the boat capable of much more extensive cruising
than any 22 foot boat has any right to claim. The boys have grown up
with our Rhodes 22 & we've had a lot of wonderful adventures with the
boat. By the way, GBI sells a starboard V-berth extension & cushion
that makes the V-berth suitable for big people. This extension &
cushion installs over the head & allows the starboard V-berth sleeper
to slide back about 24 inches. This frees up the foot space in the
bow for the feet of the port side V-berth sleeper. It works for my
two sons & allowed us to keep our Rhodes 22 instead of buying a
bigger boat. The same can be said for the enclosed Boom Room. It's
an expensive option; but, MUCH cheaper than a bigger boat!
So here I am, 46 years old with two teenage sons & a 24 year old
Rhodes 22. We go to the boat shows every year & are not particularly
tempted by any of the sailboats we see there. I would buy the same
boat today, well maybe a few years newer. I purchased a used boat to
keep costs down & have extensively modified her to suit my specific
needs. The Rhodes 22 is just a great little boat. The construction
& engineering are 1st rate. The boat has held up well to a lot of
hard use over many years. Yes, it's expensive compared to similar
sized boats. GBI isn't after the new boater market. The Rhodes 22
is for sailers that know what they want & aren't looking to trade up
in a couple of years.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
20 Aug 2000
Young kids seem to do well on the r22. We also have an 8 month old
and a 2 1/2 yr old. The drop into the cabin from the deck is not so
much that the two year old is in danger as he tries to go below. Our
rule is that the lifejacket is worn at all times on the boat and on
the dock. A little complaining now and then is worth the peace of
mind that they will be floating if they go overboard. We also keep
the sailing to one to two hour trips. A feat that is made easier
with the Rhodes furling. The idea is to make the experiences fun
and build interest that will hopefully last a lifetime.
Rob Jenner
30 Oct 2000
We bought our 1976 Rhodes 22 in the spring of 1987. At the time, I'd been
sailing 8 years & my wife, Deb. had been a sailer for about 4 years. The
Rhodes 22 wasn't our 1st sailboat. We had sailed a VandeStadt & McGruer
Siren 17 for several years before that, including some Great Lakes cruises
with Daniel as an infant & toddler. So, sailing in microcruisers with small
children can be done. But, when Gary was born in 1986, we knew it was time to find
a bigger boat. My wife & I knew what we wanted in a boat. We looked for a
year before finding our Rhodes 22.
1st of all, we live on Sanford Lake in the central lower penninsula of
Michigan. Our boat had to be suitable for the lake we live on. Sanford
Lake is a manmade lake with a surface area of about 2000 acres. Like most
manmade lakes, the lake is long & skinny. The lake's long dimension is
oriented basically north/south. Good windward sailing ability is essential
on this lake. There are plenty of shallow areas & stumps, so shoal draft
with kick-up centerboard & rudder was important. With it sitting in a slip
in the backyard all summer, the boat's major use has always been daysailing.
The huge open cockpit, plenty of on-board storage, large ice chest, 15 gal
on-board water supply, great galley, & on-board head make her a great
daysailer & good for entertaining guests.
When we bought our R-22 in 1987, our two sons Daniel & Gary,
were 4 & 1 years old respectively. Little ones have intrinsically short
attention spans & will tend to spend a lot of time below with their toys.
A word of advise from a father who's been there, when your children are
little, try to keep the time spent on the boat short, with stuff to do
belowdeck & an interesting destination at trip's end.
Don't force the little ones to learn how to sail any faster than their own
natural curiosity dictates. Don't get too bent out of shape when the sails
aren't trimmed just right, or they can't steer a straight course, or there's
grape jelly on the genoa sheets. When they were little, my boys frequently
met me at the door with my PFD when I came home from work. Now, I just
find an empty slip when I get home from work
The Rhodes 22 cabin ventilates pretty well to keep it cool & has a couple
of different sleeping areas to keep two
little boys separated when it's nap time. ("That's my side of the bunk...No
it isn't!") The main cabin is very versatile. You can put one kid at the
table with a coloring book & the other one on the cabin sole with his
MicroMachine cars. (I still have at least one MicroMachine rolling around
down in the bilge somewhere!) Or, you can stow the table & open up the
entire main cabin sole. Or, one of them can go quietly read up in the
V-berth. The large amount of cupboards & hatches in the cabin add to the
possibilities for an endless variety of make-believe games. The lower half
of the companionway hatch board can be installed in the hatch & left open.
Now, the cabin is an enclosed playpen & you can see & hear what's going on
down there. Of course, Deb. & I were also concerned about safety & things
like built-in foam floatation, roller furling sails, good nonskid decks, a
good toerail, & the intrinsic safety of 9 stays on the standing rigging were
important features.
I frequently went sailing with only Daniel & Gary when they were little.
I'm an engineer & pretty handy at building things. I designed & built my
own set of 30" high double railings from 3/4" nominal diameter, schedule 40,
stainless steel pipe. The boys quickly learned there were several ironclad
rules about life aboard the boat:
PFD's are always worn on deck - adults & kids - no exceptions. They could
take off their PFD down below in the cabin unless it was very rough.
Wearing PFD's got to be just like putting on a seatbelt in a car.
When they were little & we were underway, the cockpit was the only place the
boys were allowed without an adult with them. The cockpit was completely
enclosed by my custom-made double railings.
Maybe I was just lucky, but the boys never really balked at these safety
rules. Violation of either rule resulted in instant confinment down below
for the duration of the cruise followed by a week of no boating when we got
back to shore. Each boy "tested" the rules just once & found that Dad
wasn't kidding. They quickly got to policing each other - things like
stopping the other if he forgot to put on his PFD & started to go topside.
Other than sailing on the Great Lakes when it was really rough, I never had
to put them in safety harnesses to keep them within their boundaries. When
it was rough enough that Dad snapped on his safety harness, believe me, the
boy's eyes were as big as saucers & they wanted their harnesses on right
now!
But, I had bigger plans for our Rhodes 22 & little boys grow up. Daniel &
Gary are currently 18 & 15 years old. We've raced our Rhodes 22 & cruised
it thousands of miles on every Great Lake except Lake Superior & numerous
inland lakes & rivers. For racing, I wanted good sailing performance,
particularly in the predominently light air we get around here in the
summer. I needed good trailerability. When the boys were young, I needed
the ability to step & unstep the mast singlehanded. Now, with the boys in
their teens, we're into hard core wilderness beach camping. We need a boat
that is truely seaworthy & capable of being self sufficient for periods of a
week or more. The standing headroom under the poptop, large water supply,
pop top canvas enclosure, enclosed standing headroom boom room, & great
galley make the boat capable of much more extensive cruising than any 22
foot boat has any right to claim. The boys have grown up with our Rhodes 22
& we've had a lot of wonderful adventures with the boat, which continue
right up to the present. For example, next summer, my sons & I are planning a
cruise to Isle Royale National Park in Western Lake Superior. That cruise will
involve a 22 nm Lake Superior crossing. We plan to circumnavigate the national
park, a distance of approximately 100 nm.
By the way, GBI sells a starboard V-berth
extension & cushion that makes the V-berth suitable for big people.
This extension & cushion installs over the head & allows the starboard
V-berth sleeper to slide back about 24 inches. This frees up the foot space in the
bow for the feet of the port side V-berth sleeper. It works for my two sons &
allowed us to keep our Rhodes 22 instead of buying a bigger boat. The same
can be said for the enclosed Boom Room. It's an expensive option; but,
MUCH cheaper than a bigger boat!
So here I am, 48 years old with two teenage sons & a 25 year old Rhodes 22.
We go to the boat shows every year & are not particularly tempted by any of
the sailboats we see there. I would buy the same boat today, well maybe one
that was a few years newer. I purchased a used boat to keep costs down &
have extensively modified her to suit my specific needs. The Rhodes 22 is just a
great little boat. The construction & engineering are 1st rate. The boat
has held up well to a lot of hard use over many years. Yes, it's expensive
compared to similar sized boats. GBI isn't after the new boater market.
The Rhodes 22 is for sailers that know what they want & aren't looking to
trade up in a couple of years.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
05 Jan 2002
Infant:
We had both Daniel & Gary out sailing by the time they were a few weeks old.
At that age, they both spent a lot of time sleeping in their car seat.
Their car seat fit very nicely on the cabin sole in between the companionway
step & the ice box. This was a good location because the car seat was
wedged in there & wouldn't shift from side-to-side as the boat heeled, it
was out of the way when somebody went below, it kept the baby out of direct
sun exposure most of the time but it was also well ventillated, & it was
amidships on the boat for minimum movement. In this location, the baby was
looking out of the companionway & somebody out in the cockpit could look in
& talk to him in between tacks. The only downside to this location was the
car seat blocked quick access to the ice box. Yea yea, I know Rummy -
UNACCEPTABLE!
At that time, it was pretty tough to find a type III PFD that fit an infant.
Perhaps, there are better products available now. We were able to find an
infant size horseshoe type II PFD with the soft kapok floatation material
instead of the ETHOCEL foam. Both Daniel & Gary used this PFD & neither
seemed to mind wearing it.
Toddler:
Issue: Toddlers are unstable enough on dry ground. Put a rolling, pitching
sailboat under their feet with nothing solid to hand onto & watch them flop
around! After they bang solidly into something a couple of times, they
won't want to have any more "fun" on the boat any time soon.
The interiors page on the photo web site has a picture of my main cabin.
I'd send you the link, but I'm having trouble accessing the photo web site
right now. The boat's name is Dynamic Equilibrium & the photo is
annotated. Take note of the teak hand rail mounted below on the bulkhead
below the teak dish rack/paper towel holder. I have several of these single
loop teak hand rails mounted at toddler height in strategic locations. The
hand rails need to be solidly mounted because your kids will be hanging onto
them. Mine are thru bolted. As you can see, now that my sons have grown
up, we use them for towel racks.
Each boy got his own 5 gal Rubbermaid "Roughneck" storage container for
toys. When you have more than one child, color coding the Rubbermaid bins
is good & helps prevent arguments. You can use the Rubbermaid bins to start
teaching your children the importance of picking up after themselves. On
Dynamic Equilibrium, the rule was, "All of your toys have to be back inside
of your Rubbermaid bin & the lid secured before you can come up on deck or
go to sleep." The boys could readily appreciate how space was at a premium
on board the boat & quickly accepted this rule. It didn't always carry over
to their bedrooms on dry land, but it was a start!
Get each child a rubber backed shag carpet bathroom mat. The rubber backing
won't slip on the cabin sole & the shag carpet will anchor the child. The
child can sit on the mat & play with toys like Lego blocks, Tinker Toys,
etc. They & the toys won't slide across the cabin every time the boat
changes tack! After play, they can fall asleep on the rug. It rolls up for
easy stowage when it's not needed. Being a bath mat, when it gets dirty,
just throw it in the washing machine.
Of course things like matches, lighters, emergency flares, fire
extinguishers, LP gas stoves, handheld VHF radios, kerosene lantern fuel,
holding tank deodorant, etc must be kept locked up or out of reach.
Actually, child proofing the cabin is an ongoing effort. You need to be
really vigilant when they're this age.
Electronic Toys:
There was a time when both my sons were really into the hand held electronic
games like Game Boy & Game Gear. We limited the time spent playing with
these gadgets vs. actually sailing the boat. In addition, the boys had to
make a choice of what to take along. All their gadgets & game cartridges
still had to fit into the same 5 gal Rubbermaid bins. I once discovered one
of Gary's friends down below playing a sailing video game intead of actually
participating in real sailing up topside!
Deborah & I find some of the RAP music lyrics offensive, racist, & violent &
the music itself of poor quality. The boys still seem to like some of these
musical artists. We will sometimes tolerate listening to some of it for a
while playing on the ship's stereo system, but usually not for very long.
The boys both have personal stereos so they can listen to their music & not
disturb us. While we are underway, we only allow the use of these personal
stereos down in the cabin when someone is not on duty. On deck or on duty,
I consider being tuned in & the ability to be able to hear what is going on
to be of primary importance for ship's safety & no one uses their personal
stereo. At a dock or at anchor, they can bring their personal stereos out
on deck.
I hope these tips help you guys. My boys have grown up with our boats & I
hope this has spawned a lifelong love affair with being on the water.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
06 Jan 2002
