I am looking for suggestions for comfortable life jackets for my kids. We are bringing our 3,5 & 6 year old children with us sailing this spring and want to find good, comfortable life jackets.

Mike

There's are obviously a ton of options out there. Go with bio lite or neoprene as they are a lot more comfortable than the nylon vests. More comfort=less complaining. We've. Had good luck with both the overtons and west marine store brand, as well as O'Neil and liquidforce. Fit and stretch are a lot more important than brand though.

Also, kids love jumping off the back of the boat. Doing that enough with a regular vest will result in chaffing from the vest slamming up into their armpits.

Depending on your comfort level, your 5 and 6 year olds might benefit from a vinyl waterski belt for those type of activities. I think 5 is about when we started allowing our son to use one for play.

We got this for our son -

https://www.amazon.com/Crewsaver-Supersa...=crewsaver+kids

He wore it a lot as we moved our boat from St. Lucia to the BVI. He seemed comfortable enough and didn't mind wearing it.


Short sail while still in St. Lucia



Dinghy ride in St. Lucia



Enjoying a morning drink on our way to Virgin Gorda from St. Kitts.

Thank you both for the input. Safety is obviously number 1, but want to make sure I don't hear them complain as they will be wearing them for extended periods.

I'll just add that Conner didn't swim in his. He wore it while we were under way. When we were at anchor, he didn't wear it as he wasn't left on his own at any time.

If the goal is to have them wear it while at anchor and swim with it, then that may be harder to find something that is really comfortable and also offers the same level of safety. Our goal was simply - a vest that could keep him afloat safely if he fell off the boat, but more important a vest with harness so he never fell off the boat.

When we were down in November our 3yo alternated between a puddle jumper http://www.coleman.com/puddlejumper-child30_50lbs/
and a regular life jacket. The puddle jumper seemed to be the go-to for hanging out on deck and the regular if we went in the dinghy. The puddle jumper is coast guard approved though so it would be fine in the dinghy as well. The older children (5,6,7,9,11) all wore either a regular or neoprene vest.

Are most of the neoprene USCG approved these days? I remember years back when many weren't.

Try them on like a coat. Just like bathing suits two for each person is best. One wet, one dry.

If the weather is cool when we leave the little ones wear a life vest like a coat.

Make sure they are comfortable because they'll have to wear them while you are sailing and they aren't distracted by swimming or other fun activities.

If you live in a place where it's hard to find a place to try them on in person, I recommend going through the hassle of ordering several, trying them all on at home and then returning the ones you don't like.

We've even found that life jackets that fit our oldest really well, don't do well as hand me downs due to different body shapes. (Not fat/thin body shapes, more like chest size and torso length.)

Costco has 2 life jackets for youngsters About $20 each <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />