Babies on board?

F

firecadet613

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2007
5,253
Indiana
Boat Info
SOLD - 2007 Four Winns V358
Engines
Twin VP 5.7GXi V-Drive / ZF63s
I've finally got my admiral to sign off on us getting a cruiser, as long as she gets to have a baby. We're most likely going to end up with a 24-26' cruiser hopefully sooner rather than later. This brings up a good question, where does your baby/newborn hang out on a cruiser? We went to both the Louisville and Indianapolis shows this year, and were only able to look at a handful of cruisers. We can't seem to figure out a good place to have the baby sleep overnight on board. I'm thinking maybe in the carseat, in between the galley and the head?

It will be myself and the admiral, and our four year old son. She wants to put him in the mid-berth, and have us sleep in the v-berth. I'm all for sleeping in the mid-birth, although its small, we could leave it set up as our bed full time.

Any ideas? What have you done?
 
Keep in mind when our twins were born, they slept with us in the v-berth......on a 230OV. You'll be fine.
 
timinfla2 said:
??? Huh? Explain please...:huh:
Click to expand...
This is an article from www.babycenter.com

The BabyCenter Editorial Team
According to the U.S. Coast Guard's Office of Boating Safety, your baby should not travel on a boat — including rowboats, kayaks, motorboats, and sailboats — until he weighs at least 18 pounds and can wear a personal flotation device (PFD), also known as a life jacket or life vest, that fits snugly. Most babies will weigh 18 pounds somewhere between 4 and 11 months old. If yours hits that milestone early, consider also whether he can sit up. Being able to sit up will help your baby stay upright in his PFD and make it easier for you to hold onto him when the boat dips, weaves, and rollicks.

It can be difficult to find a PFD that fits your child. When shopping, ask for an "infant" sized PFD. These are almost always labeled, "Approved for use on recreational boats and uninspected commercial vessels not carrying passengers for hire, by persons weighing less than 30 pounds." Despite this labeling, your baby needs to weigh at least 18 pounds in order for a vest to fit him well. The only way to know if the PFD fits is to put it on your child, tighten the straps, and lift him up by the jacket's shoulders. If his chin and head slip through the neck opening then it doesn't fit properly, and you should wait a bit longer before boating together. You should also test the PFD in a controlled environment, such as a swimming pool — with you holding your baby — before taking him on a boat. Hold your baby, wearing the PDF, in the pool. When you let your child "float" in the water, the PFD should keep him in a face-up position.

Remember also that you should wear a life vest or PFD at all times on board a boat. In an emergency there might not be enough time for you to put one on. You need to stay safe to keep your baby safe.

Finally, never leave an infant in a car seat on a boat . If the boat were to capsize, the seat would sink instantly
 
Ah, Leave an infant in a boat...That makes much more sense as I couldn't understand why in the world it'd be OK to leave them flopping around in the cabin, but not in a seat ;-)

-T
 
Thanks for the tips guys, and the offer Scott!

Good to know its been done with our size boat before Todd, I know with a cruiser it would be a lot easier.
 
Our son was boating since he was about 3 months old. We've used rocking crib (just the top part), which was next to our bed in the house. It fitted just fine to have our son sleeping with us in the v-berth of our 240DA at the time.

Whenever you're looking at getting new boat I advise to get build-in A/C. If you can get 280DA with genset, it's even better. We've had number of occasions when we had to stay in the slip to run carry-on a/c while little one was sleeping. If it wasn't for that a/c we wouldn't be able to boat at all.
 
Luke and Mila about 8 weeks or so
twinsatLakeStevens-1.jpg

Mila eating too many potato chips and passed out on the 230's sunpad ~ 6 weeks or so...oh yes we just were away from her to take the pic, she wasn't left there unattended
searaybaby-1.jpg


I can understand the safety concerns and we definitely had PFD's for these guys, but common sense hopefully prevails and you'll sort it out. A cruiser is nice for the more space for sure, but nothing was going to keep us off the water and having these two come along was great, we just didn't need too much more room for them when they were born. It was all the stuff we brought along with them(diaper bags, etc).
 
And they get big quick
NehallenniaFamily-small.jpg

Yes we all slept aboard and had a blast. The older kids are My Son Jake and Daughter Michaela.
That shot was taken in May 04.
 
Oh. When you said "babies on board" I thought you meant win... umm certain CSR members on this board. Never mind.
 
So firecadet613, did you make an offer on that Four Winns 258 Vista that is in the re-po yard? What about selling your 225 Sundowner ? Did you even look at used Sea Ray 260DA's ????
 
We looked at a new leftover 240 and 280. My wife doesn't like the center access for the cabin, as opposed to the port walk-thru on the Four Winns. She likes being able to be sitting in the V-Berth and looking straight into the midbirth where the baby would be, and not having to look around the corner. We haven't made an offer yet, still trying to figure out how to sell our boat.

Oh ya, and FYI. Not sure if they are sold now or not, but at the Indy boat show they had a new '07 240 for 55k and a 280 for 99k....
 
Frank, that's a perfectly understandable mistake.
 
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