YOUNG LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE
For every sulky teenager complaining about patchy Wi-Fi and the parties they’re missing back home, there’s a young adult extolling the virtues of a childhood spent at sea. Kate Lardy speaks to the sons and daughters of yacht owners who’ve lived to tell the tale For as long as there has been the sea and boats, intrepid parents have taken their children away from the confines of land and journeyed together over the horizon – but perhaps never more so than today. Our society is becoming more mobile, with work being done remotely from anywhere, and there’s a pervasive adventurous spirit that is changing the way people use their yachts.
Ann Avery, yacht broker with Northrop & Johnson, has seen a definite shift towards family cruising. “Part of the reason is because of technology, namely VSAT, so families can really get away, including mothers and fathers who work. It opens up a whole world for a family in a way that was never possible before,” she says. “And to be able to introduce children to what the world at sea can offer is amazing.”
Avery has a client who bought a 25-metre yacht to sail the Pacific for a year with his wife and three sons because back when he was 14, his parents forced him on a boat. At first he resented being separated from his friends, but he left the trip
