Sea-Sickness: Mono vs Cat

[Southern Star]

Of course the causes/onset/severity/duration of mal de mer is individual, but there is at least some reason to believe that mulithulls should be better for many people:

1. It has long been recommended that people suffering from seasickness look to the horizon - and that can be done from virtually anywhere inside a mulithull, but not a monohull.
2. Inner ear/balance issues are at least a factor in seasickness and multihulls tend to heel less and hence, move about primarily on a fore and aft axis rather than both fore and aft and side to side.

And for whatever it is worth, my fiance has not suffered sea sickness aboard my current cat, whereas she periodically did suffer from the same in a monohull.

Brad

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by George Wade

Did you try and succeed ?

I found ginger, mints, teas, etc may all help sooth and upset stomach a bit, but they are no real remedy for seasickness. Looking at the horizon and avoiding going below definately help. Unfortunately, so does not having any alcohol the night before.

My own experience and that of people who have joined me with wrist bands is that if they work, its only a placebo affect.

Meclazine works fairly well and is quite inexpensive when purchase in it's generic form. Unfortunatley, like most the sea sick meds it makes me drowsy. If find however, the drowsiness reduces quickly, if I continually take it. 250 mg in the morning and again at night seems a good balance. Sturgeon also makes me drowsy, and as an American it's harder to find and much more expensive than meclazine. I need to try the scapolomine patch again. I known it gave me dry mouth and made me a bit drowsy, but I don't know if that was a severe as the meclazine. Having a patch is convenient, but also easy to forget about, until you find yourself getting ill.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

Of course the causes/onset/severity/duration of mal de mer is individual, but there is at least some reason to believe that mulithulls should be better for many people:

1. It has long been recommended that people suffering from seasickness look to the horizon - and that can be done from virtually anywhere inside a mulithull, but not a monohull.
2. Inner ear/balance issues are at least a factor in seasickness and multihulls tend to heel less and hence, move about primarily on a fore and aft axis rather than both fore and aft and side to side.

And for whatever it is worth, my fiance has not suffered sea sickness aboard my current cat, whereas she periodically did suffer from the same in a monohull.

Brad

A few data points for you:
1) We chartered a cat that had a mirror mounted at eye level in the main salon. Any attempt to look out the windows through that mirror made everyone immediately ill! LESSON: Do NOT look at the horizon in a mirror!!!

2) After sailing all Spring season with open cockpit, I found putting a bimini over the cockpit makes one more prone to seasickness, so (in my case) it's not just a question of looking at the horizon, but also having open sky.

3) Having a bimini is nowhere near as bad as being in a small boat... I think size of boat in relation to size waves is also a factor. One of the few times I felt queasy in recent memory was when fishing on a 10-foot RIB in 3-4 foot seas.

[sneuman]

2) After sailing all Spring season with open cockpit, I found putting a bimini over the cockpit makes one more prone to seasickness, so (in my case) it's not just a question of looking at the horizon, but also having open sky.

Absolutely!

[rtbates]

I've been sailing 30 years. I've been in jet fighters pulling over 5g's and I've never come close to being motion sick, UNTIL I spent a few hours crossing the channel in Mauai, Hawaii aboard a 50' cat. 6 to 8 foot swells were running from just aft of starboard beam. Every time a swell would reach a corner on the cat it would lift that corner alone. The cork screw motion was horrible. I thought I would puke for sure. I didn't but it was close.

[CarlF]

I remember reading that the US Navy did a study as part of their planning for catamaran ships. I can't find the article but I believe that the conclusion was that about the same percentage of people get seasick on mono's as cat's but that it is different groups. Very few people get seasick on both types of ships.

Does this carry over to smaller boats? Are there mono sailors who were rarely sick on a mono that have have trouble on a cat - or visa versa?

Carl

[sneuman]

The "cat vs. mono" thing aside, this is a very interesting question.

I have been on both and the only time I nearly hurled was below decks on a mono, but those were survival conditions.

I have had no problems whatsoever on cats, but I've never been in a cat in anything more than about a 4' chop.

[George Wade]

Originally Posted by nautical62

I found ginger, mints, teas, etc may all help sooth and upset stomach a bit, but they are no real remedy...

My own experience and that of people who have joined me with wrist bands is that if they work, its only a placebo affect.

Meclazine works fairly well and is quite inexpensive... Unfortunatley, like most the sea sick meds it makes me drowsy.... I need to try the scapolomine patch again. I known it gave me dry mouth and made me a bit drowsy.....

Some of us find that 'Wake up' caffeine pills and some multi-vitamins counteract the drowsiness. Luckily I only need this for the first 24 hours if I have to navigate or cook down below. Or fix the bilge pump...

Placebo is different. It can be positive or negative. It may be powerful enough to sink a profitable line of drugs and the company with it. Western critical logic has not found a way to deal with placebo as a direct result. I can use placebo accupuncture points to great effect having learned not to be destructively logical about it.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by rtbates

I've been sailing 30 years. I've been in jet fighters pulling over 5g's and I've never come close to being motion sick, UNTIL I spent a few hours crossing the channel in Mauai, Hawaii aboard a 50' cat. 6 to 8 foot swells were running from just aft of starboard beam. Every time a swell would reach a corner on the cat it would lift that corner alone. The cork screw motion was horrible. I thought I would puke for sure. I didn't but it was close.

Interesting for me to note you're saling a CD 25. I remember following a CD27 owned by a friend, and couldn't believe the way that boat was hobby-horsing while we had almost no motion at all in our 30' trimaran (we owned at that time).

The pendulous keel of monohulls will tend to accentuate the type of corkscrew motion you described, like a weeble, and the mono will keep swinging to its own pendulous motion beyond what the waves impart. I sailed monos all my life before getting hooked on multis. Yes the motion is different in cats, tri's and monos. As to whether that makes you sick is largely a personal thing and is entirely subjective. It might have more to do with what you ate that day and local conditions than what hull type.

[Knowazark]

Every time a swell would reach a corner on the cat it would lift that corner alone. The cork screw motion was horrible.

That corkscrew motion is just plain nasty. It happens on monos too and I have found that it can have just as bad an effect in monos or cats. A large quarter following sea is just a difficult motion for the brain to deal with as you're pitching, rolling, yawing, accelerating and decelerating all at the same time.

I don't tend to get seasick much (depends on last night's social activities ), however, my sailing experience is coastal with most sailing in sight of land, although I have had no problems with night sailing where stable visual cues are absent. I have significantly more problems on powerboats, partly because they have a different motion from a yacht, which is stabilised and damped by the keel and sails, and partly because, unless you're skippering, there's little to do on a powerboat. If I have plenty to do, then I don't get sick ... if I don't have enough to keep my mind busy I can start feeing ill on powerboats. Diesel fumes and engine noise all contribute to the queasiness.

On a yacht, I find my mind is much more active and there's always something to be looking at or thinking about - sail trim, course corrections, plotting the course, checking for other boats, checking wind and/or sea conditions. Even when I'm not the skipper of a yacht, I'm thinking about all sorts of stuff - on a powerboat there's little to occupy my mind unless I'm skippering.

I have noticed no difference between cats and monos in terms of personal seasickness, though admittedly the majority of my experience is with monos and I don't tend to get sick that often anyway.

To ward off seasickness I've found chewing gum can help, as can ginger cookies, plenty of fresh air, finding a task to keep me active, etc. If all else fails and I'm entering the barf zone then canned peaches in syrup can help - they don't stop the nausea but they slip and slide well and taste as good on the way back as they did on the way down.

[SailFastTri]

I came across this YouTube video and it shows pretty clearly how one (monohull) sailboat deals with it. Not too well. That boat is borderline out of control and at times dangerously close to broaching if it gets caught broadside. Putting the question of seamanship aside (and how to better handle such extreme situations) I think I'd be seasick pretty quickly if I was aboard that vessel. A cat or tri would be much more stable in that situation and there would be less rolling, but I would still be prone to seasickness on my tri in waves of that extreme size. Choose your poison.

YouTube - Anita im Orkan

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by sneuman

2) After sailing all Spring season with open cockpit, I found putting a bimini over the cockpit makes one more prone to seasickness, so (in my case) it's not just a question of looking at the horizon, but also having open sky.

Absolutely!

That's a good point. I get that with the dodger. I'm looking at the horizon and then the dodger bobs up in front of it.

[anjou]

Several years ago, I awoke in the night needing the loo and as i sat there, the wall came up and hit my head, or so it seemed.
I had in fact fallen sideways.
I had trouble returning to bed and felt nauseaus. I called the MO next morning and he said i had a problem with my inner ear. Inside the ear canals there are minute hairs (cilli) which detect the motion of the canal fluid. Sometimes part of a hair or a bit of skin comes lose and floats about tickling the hairs and gives the brain the sensation of movement when the eyes cannot confirm in unison there is any movement. This causes the disorientation of which sea sickness is associated.
It was quickly remedies with pills. The condition I had is called

Ménière's disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Knowazark]

Anjou's inner ear problem is the same kind of thing that causes "bed spins" in the acutely drunk.

When you've inbibed lots of alcohol , the alcohol in your blood stream starts to diffuse into the fluid in your inner ears (follows the concentration gradient) and it changes the density of the fluid. This means that the hair cells and sensors are operating under different circumstances from normal and they start to send different signals which the brain interprets as movement. So it feels like you're moving when you're not.

That's why you end up lying on your bunk giggling your head off and asking dumb questions about why the room is moving .... usually just before you redecorate the cabin in a chicken salad themed decor (not that I've ever done that myself )

Its called "alcohol induced positional nystagmus".