Time out: Sailing with children: how to make parental leave on board a success

How is it all supposed to fit on the boat?

It's not just aspiring circumnavigators who ask themselves this question when trying to stow their reduced household goods on a twelve-metre boat. At the start of their sailing adventure, Sabine and Tom Stoecker also wondered how they could fit everything that was piled up in the car and on the jetty on board: Dozens of packs of nappies, children's clothes for two months, a self-made child seat, a buggy, the cool box - and the barbecue has to come too.

The crew of the seven-metre Dehler Sprinta 70 "Lela" may be small, but they have special needs: The Stoeckers have two months of parental leave with their one-year-old daughter Helen ahead of them as they try to stow away all the paraphernalia for child-friendly sailing in June 2016.

Like many young families, the Stoeckers take advantage of the right to up to three years' parental leave to take time off work together and combine caring for their children with travelling. As sailors from an early age, the Stoeckers want to go on an extensive cruise - which needs to be well prepared and before which they have asked themselves a few questions.

For example: At what age of the child do we do this? With which boat and which equipment? What needs to be converted? And: Which area and which route are suitable?

In the report in the new YACHT, six families reveal how they realised their time out sailing with their children. The reports range from two months around the IJsselmeer to a Baltic Sea tour and an extended Mediterranean cruise to sailing around the world with children from infancy to primary school age.

Plus: ten tips for relaxed cruises with the kids!

The new YACHT 17/2019 is available in stores from today, can be ordered online and is available digitally here.