We took our two children on a yacht for a week and came back with all of them, which felt like a result. Before we left, I read a lot of advice on Greece Yacht about sailing with kids, and then ignored some of it. Here is what actually worked.
Short sailing days. That was the big one. We never planned more than a few hours of moving, and we always had a beach in mind for the afternoon. Children do not care about the destination. They care about whether there is anything to do when they get there.
Life jackets they liked mattered more than I expected. The ones we hired first were stiff and hot, and there was a lot of complaining. We found lighter ones that fitted properly, and after that they kept them on without being asked. Worth the trouble of trying a few on.
Games on deck saved us on the calm days. A bit of rope for practising knots. A fishing line with no hook, just a weight, and they were busy for ages. Counting the different blues of the water. I am not above bribery either: whoever spots the first dolphin gets the last biscuit.
Beach afternoons were the reward for the sailing part. We would anchor, swim ashore with a dry bag, and stay until the light changed. Sand, shells, warm shallow water. They would rather have that than any water park, and so would I.
A flexible plan is the last thing, and probably the most useful. We wrote the week in pencil. When one of them was tired, or the wind picked up, we stopped earlier than planned. Nothing bad happened. The islands are close together and there is always another cove.
Would I go again with them? Yes. Shorter hops, more swimming, less ambition. That is the whole recipe.
