: As a father preparing to do this with two girls this entry did get
: my attention. One thing I noticed is that many folks who tackled
: a kid friendly SOF were already accomplished sea kayakers. They
: can train and supervise their kids in the skills and techniques
: and more importantly can handle the dunkings and tricky
: situations. I value their knowledge and experience and admire
: the free sharing. In the end I can't shake the intuitive feeling
: that any kayak under 24 maybe 22 inches is too narrow for my
: mission. Some of these boats have waterlines around 17".
: Also if the boat tips I want my girls falling out with no need
: to deal with a small round cockpit opening. Falling out of a
: canoe is a wonderful lesson in keeping the big hole up.

Think of it this way: A 24" beam kayak for a child's kayak would scale up to about 32" for an adult boat. How comfortable would that be to paddle?

My 6 year old daughter has a kayak has a maximum beam of 16". It IS 12 feet long though. It doesn't sound intuitive but the added length adds a lot of stability. It's actually more stable than her little sister's boat (8' long and 18" wide). It was scaled down from an adult boat (15' LOA x 21" wide). It looks her size.

If you're worried about stability early on it's not unheard of to add some outriggers/amas. Pull them off as soon as they're comfortable so they can get used to the motion of the kayak.