There is nothing unusual or terrible about seasickness. If you feel sick at sea on a yacht, your head is spinning, and your body is covered in cold sweat, then you are experiencing the symptoms of motion sickness, which have been familiar to sailors since ancient times. Seasickness can also manifest itself in headaches, pale skin, increased salivation and drowsiness. Often, all the symptoms appear simultaneously.
Seasickness can occur on any type of vessel, be it a planing motorboat or a keel sailboat. In addition, you can often hear stories when people begin to suffer from the above symptoms when switching from one type of hull to another. And without any pattern.
For example, it is believed that a catamaran is more friendly to the vestibular apparatus than a monohull, but in practice this is quite individual. We personally know those who have never suffered from motion sickness, but everything changed after buying a catamaran. Probably, years of adaptation to classic displacement hulls played a role. Moreover, today even small trawler yachts can be equipped with excellent stabilization systems.
Causes of seasickness
The reasons lie in the discrepancy between the perception of the body position by the senses and the vestibular apparatus. Seasickness can occur when the inner ear, responsible for spatial orientation, sends signals to the brain that you are moving, although the organs of vision, that is, the eyes, refute this information.
This is exactly the situation that occurs on board a boat, especially in rough seas. The inability to see the horizon or being in a closed cabin further increases the discrepancy between the body’s position control systems in space.
Does everyone suffer from motion sickness?
Almost all proud sea wolves will certainly tell you that this problem has never affected them and is typical only for green, inexperienced youths. Moreover, you can hear the version that if a person who went to sea for the first time immediately got seasick, then yachting is not for him.
In fact, more than 90% of sailors have suffered from this affliction to some degree at least once in their lives. A survey of ARC transatlantic regatta sailors found that 26% of participants experienced typical symptoms, and more than half of them used some form of prophylaxis on board.
Even astronauts suffer from these problems, at least during the adaptation to weightlessness.
Predisposition
Research shows that a predisposition to seasickness can be inherited in 50-70% of cases. There is also reason to believe that there are racial differences in susceptibility to motion sickness. For example, the Chinese are more susceptible to seasickness than Italians and Greeks. It seems that seafaring is hardwired into the DNA of Mediterranean peoples.
There are also gender differences. Women are more sensitive to spatial disorientation than men. Finally, poor physical fitness and high stress levels are known to increase the likelihood of developing symptoms of seasickness.
Therefore, based on this data, the most vulnerable hypothetical person on a yacht would be a depressed, overweight Asian woman whose parents suffered from seasickness. And the most resilient would be a fit and cheerful Italian or Greek.
Duration of symptoms
Returning to the ARC sailors, 58% of those who experienced seasickness recovered within one or two days at most. 27% continued to experience symptoms for three to four days. 8% were sick for about five to seven days. And only 7% of sailors felt unwell for more than a week.
In any case, more than half of the sailors (60%) who were susceptible to motion sickness said that it did not interfere with their tasks of sailing and working on board.
Prevention and treatment
It should be noted that different methods of preventing and eliminating symptoms will work for different people. Over time, you will know exactly what works best for you, both in terms of medication and diet.
Medicines
Medicines are considered to be quite effective in treating seasickness. They help in about 80% of cases. There are many such medicines, you can find them in any pharmacy. These are mainly antihistamines. The main problem with pills is possible side effects, such as drowsiness and dry mouth.
An alternative to tablets is a scopolamine patch, which is glued behind the ear. Using patches can also cause side effects. There are even references to sailors who experienced withdrawal syndrome after constant and long-term use of scopolamine patches. We do not know whether this is a legend or not.
Food
To prevent motion sickness, you can use food countermeasures. However, the list of effective products is extremely small.
The most well-known of these is ginger root. Indeed, a number of clinical studies have shown that ginger can reduce nausea and vomiting, but its mechanism of action is not yet fully understood. In addition to ginger, researchers believe that grapefruit juice works best. On board many yachts, hard candies, cola, and crackers are quite popular to alleviate symptoms.
Alcohol, of course, has a negative effect on adaptation to seasickness. Coffee does not seem to have any effect on the well-being of most sailors who are susceptible to motion sickness, but it can neutralize the side effect of drowsiness caused by taking medications. The main thing is that it does not neutralize the effect of the components of the pills themselves.
Work on board
Cleaning the boat, cooking, repairing or equipment maintenance can be very effective ways to distract yourself and get through rough seas. This is why you rarely see a captain suffering from nausea during bad weather: his attention is completely focused on managing the yacht and the actions of the crew.
Adaptation
Adaptation to seasickness is something that will happen sooner or later on its own. The brain will learn to interpret contradictory information, make adjustments and stop wasting energy on expressing external symptoms. However, you will get the opposite effect when you step on solid shore. And this effect is called Mal de Debarquement syndrome. Fortunately, it is not as tiring, passes quickly and does not have the same unpleasant symptoms.
Many solo yachtsmen who go out to sea do not fight seasickness at all in order to avoid drowsiness from medications. And it usually passes within 24 hours.