I am thinking of getting the kids into sailing when they get a bit older (eldest 5yrs)
Looks like a nice summer sport
We live in Perth, anyone have any experience with this.
Also how much of the day does it take up, its not like cricket?
look around your local yacht clubs and join one that has a kids program .
if you join, then your kids will get the benifit. 
depending where you live and what sailing club you want to go to has the biggest effect on all your questions, time wise it will be anywhere between a couple of hours and half a day, as for clubs well where to start i can list all the club i can think of that have a junior program, Hilarys sailing club, Fremantle sailing club, east fremantle sailing club, royal freshwater bay yacht club, nedlands yacht club, south of perth yacht club, mounts bay yacht club, royal perth yacht club, perth dinghy sailing club, shelley sailing club, the cruising yacht club (rockingham), mandurah offshore fishing and sailing club just to name a few. each club will have it's own classes for progression, once again there is many different kid friendly classes, but here there are 3 main classes for young kids optimists, open bic and mudlark, i would recommend mudlarks for younger or smaller kids as they are smaller with less sail area. also there is cost of membership, generally the more cruiser oriented clubs are more expensive such as sopyc, rpyc and rfbyc where as the volinteer familly oriented clubs are relatively cheap. don't be afraid to go to any of these clubs and others during the season there are plenty of people around to give you an idea of how things work at their club
