Chartering a Catamaran With Children: What Actually Works, and What Nobody Warns You About

The case for a catamaran as a family boat is not a marketing story, and it is worth stating precisely because it is unusually strong. Three structural facts do almost all the work. The decks stay broadly level, so nobody is carrying a drink across a slope or sleeping on an angle. The cabins sit in two separate hulls, which means children at one end and adults at the other with an entire boat's width between them rather than a plywood bulkhead. And the wide, low transom steps at the back turn getting in and out of the water from a ladder problem into a walking problem, which matters enormously for a six-year-old and for a grandparent.

Add a very large flat deck for eating and lying about, a cockpit that connects to the saloon at the same level so a parent can see both, and a shallow draught that reaches the bays with sand rather than the ones with rock, and you have a boat that fits how families actually spend a week. The full comparison against the alternative is in catamaran versus monohull. What follows is everything the brochure will not tell you.

Short legs, and then shorter ones

The single most common mistake on a family charter is planning the itinerary the adults want. Children are excellent at being on a boat for about ninety minutes and then they are done, and a boat with a bored, hot, restless child on it is not a place anybody is having a holiday. Most families converge on the same rhythm without being told: a short leg in the morning while the day is cool, anchor somewhere for a long lunch and a swim, and a second short hop only if everyone is still cheerful.

Build the week around that rather than fighting it. Choose a cruising ground where the bays are close together, so a bad morning costs you an hour rather than a day, and accept that you will see less coastline than you would without children. The alternative — a long passage to reach somewhere impressive — is the classic way to lose a day and a good deal of goodwill. If motion is a worry, and with children it very often is, read seasickness on a charter before you build the route rather than after.

“Plan the week around the shortest attention span aboard. Everything else on a family charter is downstream of that one decision.”

Safety, agreed on day one

Boats are not dangerous places for children, but they are places where the consequences of not looking are different from the consequences ashore. The families who enjoy the week are, almost without exception, the ones who settled a small number of rules on the first afternoon and then stopped negotiating them.

• Tell the charter company the ages and sizes of every child at booking, and confirm that correctly fitting buoyancy aids will be aboard. The boat's standard inventory is sized for adults and a lifejacket that does not fit is worse than useless.
• Ask whether the base can fit netting along the guardrails. Many can, some charge for it, and on a boat with a toddler it changes the whole week.
• Agree when buoyancy aids are worn — under way, on deck at night, in the tender — and make it a rule rather than a judgement call, so nobody is arguing about it in a rising wind.
• Agree who is watching. Two adults both assuming the other one is on duty is the actual failure mode, not the sea. Name the person for each part of the day, out loud.
• Set a boundary on deck for small children and mark it with something they can see. The foredeck of a catamaran is a wonderful place and it is also a long way from the cockpit.
• Brief the tender separately. It is the part of the boat children use most and the part with the least supervision, and the outboard deserves its own rule.
• Know where the first aid kit is, and take your own supplies for the ordinary things — antihistamine, rehydration salts, plasters that stick to wet skin. Getting to a pharmacy from an anchorage is not quick.

Heat, shade and sleep

Three practical problems dominate family charters in summer and none of them appears in the photographs. The first is shade: a catamaran's enormous deck is largely uncovered, and a bimini over the cockpit is the difference between a usable boat and one where everybody hides below at midday. Ask specifically what shade the boat has, whether it covers the helm, and whether there is anything over the foredeck.

The second is sleep. Cabins in a hull get hot, and whether they cool down depends on air conditioning that on most charter boats runs from a generator, which is noisy and which many crews turn off overnight. Ask what the arrangement is before you book, because a child who cannot sleep sets the tone for the following day. Hatches that open, a decent breeze through the boat and an anchorage chosen for airflow do more than people expect.

The third is water — the drinking kind. Children in heat drink far more than anyone plans for, and the boat's tanks are for washing and cooking as much as for drinking. Provisioning a bareboat covers the arithmetic; the short version is to buy more bottled water than feels sensible and to stow it low.

The case for taking a skipper

Even for a qualified parent, a skipper on a family charter is worth thinking about harder than most people do, and the reason is not competence. It is that berthing, anchoring and any moment of difficulty are precisely the moments when children need an adult, and on a bareboat both parents are working the boat exactly then. A skipper means one parent is always available to be a parent. It also means somebody aboard knows which bay is untenable in tomorrow's wind, which removes a category of stress that parents carry silently and children pick up on.

The middle option is a flotilla: your own boat, your own privacy, and professionals on a lead boat within radio range who plan the route and fix what breaks. For families it is arguably the best product on the water, partly for the support and partly because children find other children in the first harbour and the social half of the holiday organises itself. That is set out in flotilla sailing, and the qualification question either way is in what a charter company asks before handing you the keys.

The honest counter-argument

A boat is not automatically a good family holiday and it is worth saying so. It is a confined space with no way to leave, limited entertainment when the weather turns, an adult who is sometimes unavailable because they are driving, and a constant low-level requirement to be watching. A villa with a pool asks none of that, gives everybody their own room, and lets a parent read a book without one eye on the guardrail. For families with a child who does not like water, does not like confinement or does not like motion, the villa is simply the better holiday, and private villa versus hotel covers that side of the decision.

What a boat gives in exchange is not comparable to anything else. Children who spend a week swimming off the back of a boat, snorkelling in bays reachable no other way, sleeping to the sound of water and helping to raise a sail come back different. Families report it as the holiday their children remember, and the ones who go once mostly go again. Just build the week around the shortest attention span aboard, and let the coastline be whatever fits inside that.

Frequently asked questions

Is a catamaran better than a monohull for families?

For most families, yes, and for three structural reasons rather than marketing ones. The decks stay level so nobody is walking on a slope, the cabins sit in two separate hulls so children and adults get real acoustic distance, and the wide low transom steps make getting in and out of the water simple for small people and grandparents alike.

What age can children go on a yacht charter?

There is no universal answer and the charter company sets its own policy, so ask them directly rather than assume. What decides it in practice is not age but supervision: a boat is a place where an adult must be watching, all the time, and a week is long. Families who enjoy it are usually the ones who agreed in advance who is on watch for the children at each part of the day.

How long should the daily sailing legs be with kids aboard?

Shorter than you think and shorter than the adults would choose. Most families settle on one to two hours in the morning and a swim at the other end, with the option of a second short hop later. Long passages are where children become miserable and the whole boat follows, and no view is worth that. Plan the week around bays that are close together.

What safety equipment do children need on board?

Properly fitting buoyancy aids or lifejackets in the right size, which the charter company must be told about in advance because the boat's standard inventory will not fit a small child. Beyond the equipment, agree the rules on day one: when they are worn, where the boundary is on deck, and who is watching. Ask the base about netting on the guardrails and whether they can fit it.

Should we take a skipper if we are sailing with children?

It is worth serious thought even if you are qualified. A skipper means both parents are free to be parents at the moments that matter — berthing, anchoring, and the hour when everyone is tired — rather than one of them being unavailable exactly then. Many families who bareboat happily as a couple take a skipper the first year they bring children.