no one told me I might experience motion sickness on a wide beam

[X Alan W]

12 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

Have you thought about water tanks that run dry, unlike mains supplies?

Have you thought about batteries that go flat, leaving you without lights?

Have you thought about gas bottles that run out in the middle of cooking dinner?

You've already been reminded about toilets. If you get frozen in, you cannot get to pumpout.

Have you thought about where to live whilst having the bottom blacked?

All these things can make you sicker than the soporific rocking that most boaters enjoy.

All valid points, OP states that they are about to spend a 6 figure sum on the boat but is shocked by the  mooring fee, the boat appears to have done very little except chug back & forth to the pump out, no mention of survey(possible costs) Hull check & blacking  Batteries possibly on the way out (age) & general maintenance I wonder if its a rose coloured glasses syndrome  maybe with the motion sickness a park home by the canal would suit better But on "Tother" hand I could be way off the mark  one thing though the bog pumpout gas bottles & maintenance will always be around the same or higher price

[cuthound]

14 hours ago, dmr said:

But, we have met so so many couples where husband wants to live on the boat and wife is very very unhappy and just doing it to please husband. These people usually don't stick it for long. Im lucky, my wife likes the boaty life just as much as me, if not more.

Real boaters dont get sea sick, they get land sick. (really)

...............Dave

This is very true in my case. 

I would love to live permanently on the boat but Mrs Hound will only spend a maximum of a month at a time onboard.

The expensive compromise was to buy a canalside house and moor the boat there.

Although I can get sea sick I have never experienced motion sickness on a narrowboat (which I assume will roll more than a wide beam).

I think Prue will quickly get used to the motion of the the boat, but it is worth taking up the sellers offer to spend a weekend on it just to be sure it does pass. 

Edited October 28, 2017 by cuthound
To add a missing worm

[peterboat]

14 hours ago, Prue said:

the mooring fees shocked me. £4500 a year

it is as expensive as living in a house if we pay mooring fees, its a large boat to try to CC with.

Its not Prue mine is 57 x 12 and its easy when you get used to it never had motion sickness on mine though  it hardly rocks at all. You need to find better moorings I only pay a fraction of what you pay, and whilst its Rotherham its not much different to Apperly Bridge honest

[bizzard]

My solution to this seasickness problem is in the ''No widebeans to Warwick thread'' by mistake.

[Steilsteven]

A friend of mine, during an eye test, was asked by the optician if he lived on a boat. My friend asked how he could tell and was told that boat dwellers eyes tend to have a slight constant movement caused by compensation for the movement of the boat.

Keith

[bizzard]

Private Fraser in Dads army suffered something like this when on the shooting range, he was waving his rifle ''up and down, up and down'', to get on target. Mainwaring asked him why he was doing it, he replied, ''Its the motion of the sea'' Cap Mannering. He won the shooting match.

Edited October 28, 2017 by bizzard

[Peter X]

Prue,

It is common practise on this forum to try to joke about everything, especially something a bit unusual like inland seasickness, and sometimes people are patronising and you just have to ignore them. An alternative is to make fun of them, most of them can take it.

How seasickness affects some people, or those in some situations, more than others is a mysterious thing, so I guess the advice you've been given to do some more boating before committing to buying has got to be good. Personally I don't seem to suffer; I once felt a bit queasy during a rough ferry crossing from Southampton to Cherbourg, but found that having a little to eat and just walking up and down the ship letting it throw me sideways and not trying to keep to a straight line worked for me. In general I'd expect a widebeam to rock a bit less than a narrow boat, but it does depend on ballast; my experience is that some boats rock more than others with a similar profile according to how high up the centre of gravity is.

If you buy a widebeam up north you're unlikely to need to know what the K&A is! Because every route from north to south includes narrow canals; nothing wider than a smidge over 7 feet can pass, except by using costly road haulage. However if you feel the urge to move the boat about more than the previous owner did, you have quite a lot of connected wide waters to choose from up there, and they're less crowded than the wide waters of the south.

[dmr]

I once did a rough crossing on a high speed catamaran ferry, I think from Dover to somwhere or other. I felt more than a little queasy. Eating really wasn't an option as I was too busy doing the opposite.

I also got seasick on the some of the rougher days when Solent Sailing. Stugeron does stop it but was not a good option for me as it puts me into a total daze which is no good when there are sails to be tended too. I don't think Stugeron is a good long term option for liveaboard seasickness.

..............Dave

[tree monkey]

47 minutes ago, dmr said:

I once did a rough crossing on a high speed catamaran ferry, I think from Dover to somwhere or other. I felt more than a little queasy. Eating really wasn't an option as I was too busy doing the opposite.

I also got seasick on the some of the rougher days when Solent Sailing. Stugeron does stop it but was not a good option for me as it puts me into a total daze which is no good when there are sails to be tended too. I don't think Stugeron is a good long term option for liveaboard seasickness.

..............Dave

I went on a tourist trip in NZ and it was rough as, and I loved it, stood on the front whilst the boat crashed into what seemed to me to be massive waves (I'm sure it was relatively tame)

Trip boat decided to turn around because of the seas and I was ordered back inside, into the hot vomit filled cabin full of green faced fellow tourists, one wiff of the sick buckets and my stomach turned and I spent the rest of the trip trying not to upchuck.

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by tree monkey

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I went on a tourist trip in NZ and it was rough as, and I loved it, stood on the front whilst the boat crashed into what seemed to me to be massive waves (I'm sure it was relatively tame)

Trip boat decided to turn around because of the seas and I was ordered back inside, into the hot vomit filled cabin full of green faced fellow tourists, one wiff of the sick buckets and my stomach turned and I spent the rest of the trip trying not to upchuck.

 

I am 100% 'fine' when we are moving or I am at the helm.

Anchor up and go below deck and its another story.

[dmr]

2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I went on a tourist trip in NZ and it was rough as, and I loved it, stood on the front whilst the boat crashed into what seemed to me to be massive waves (I'm sure it was relatively tame)

Trip boat decided to turn around because of the seas and I was ordered back inside, into the hot vomit filled cabin full of green faced fellow tourists, one wiff of the sick buckets and my stomach turned and I spent the rest of the trip trying not to upchuck.

 

On the rough crossing I mentioned I also remember a bloke eating a huge cooked breakfast whilst his wife, sitting right next to him, was puking into a sick bag. He was not at all put off by this but I think it pushed me over the edge.

I have done some very rough sailing and been fine, its a certain motion, usually a big gentle rolling sea rather than a crashing sea that gets me. I even felt very sick swimming in the sea once.

..............Dave

[mrsmelly]

17 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Well yes, duh. This is normal. 

Reading between the lines you seem to think a boat should be cheaper than a house to live on. A common misperception.

A superior lifestyle usually costs more, not less, dunnit!

Spot on.

17 hours ago, dmr said:

Living aboard a boat and cruising extensively is great.

I sometimes think that living aboard a static boat in a marina is the worse of both worlds, but lots of people do it, and it probably is still a bit better than a house.

But, we have met so so many couples where husband wants to live on the boat and wife is very very unhappy and just doing it to please husband. These people usually don't stick it for long. Im lucky, my wife likes the boaty life just as much as me, if not more.

Real boaters dont get sea sick, they get land sick. (really)

...............Dave

Yep that about sums it up.

[mrsmelly]

17 hours ago, Prue said:

I have a husband for that shit

In fact , in my experience its men that produce most of it. 

You arnt doing too bad so far

1 hour ago, dmr said:

I once did a rough crossing on a high speed catamaran ferry, I think from Dover to somwhere or other. I felt more than a little queasy. Eating really wasn't an option as I was too busy doing the opposite.

I also got seasick on the some of the rougher days when Solent Sailing. Stugeron does stop it but was not a good option for me as it puts me into a total daze which is no good when there are sails to be tended too. I don't think Stugeron is a good long term option for liveaboard seasickness.

..............Dave

I always found/find mega rough seas no problem, hurricane force in the arctic cirlcle was great fun but what gets me sometimes queezy would be a large swell

[MtB]

On 28/10/2017 at 14:56, dmr said:

On the rough crossing I mentioned I also remember a bloke eating a huge cooked breakfast whilst his wife, sitting right next to him, was puking into a sick bag. He was not at all put off by this but I think it pushed me over the edge.

I have done some very rough sailing and been fine, its a certain motion, usually a big gentle rolling sea rather than a crashing sea that gets me. I even felt very sick swimming in the sea once.

..............Dave

 

Motion sickness is a curious thing. Last time I had it was after an afternoon kart racing. I was fine all the time in a kart but each time I stopped driving and got out, the sickness hit me. Getting back in and driving again made it go away. After the last drive however, I was too ill to go in the pub, DISASTER. Only then did they all realise how bad I felt!

[MHS]

2 hours ago, Steilsteven said:

A friend of mine, during an eye test, was asked by the optician if he lived on a boat. My friend asked how he could tell and was told that boat dwellers eyes tend to have a slight constant movement caused by compensation for the movement of the boat.

Keith

It sounds an unlikely way to develop Acquired Nystagmus, which is likely what you friend has. That’s assuming he’s not had it from childhood. 

[bizzard]

Its best not to keep looking at a heaving horizon, like Manchester or Birmingham for example.

[Steilsteven]

12 minutes ago, MHS said:

It sounds an unlikely way to develop Acquired Nystagmus, which is likely what you friend has. That’s assuming he’s not had it from childhood. 

Can't answer that as we lost touch a long time ago, all I know is that the optician was right.

Keith 

[MHS]

1 minute ago, Steilsteven said:

Can't answer that as we lost touch a long time ago, all I know is that the optician was right.

Keith 

If he hasn’t had it from childhood, your friend should have been referred to the hospital by the optician. Causes of Acquired Nystagmus include strokes, multiple sclerosis, head injuries and adverse reactions to medication. 

Lets hope it was followed up. 

[Steilsteven]

6 minutes ago, MHS said:

If he hasn’t had it from childhood, your friend should have been referred to the hospital by the optician. Causes of Acquired Nystagmus include strokes, multiple sclerosis, head injuries and adverse reactions to medication. 

Lets hope it was followed up. 

Well yes indeed but are you saying that that is the only possibility? After all that would mean that all the optician''s patients who lived on boats must have the condition.

Keith

[Murflynn]

the lady was advised to hire a boat for a week or two before deciding if a life on the cut may be fun or hell;  it has me wondering why she doesn't think this might just be a good idea.

 

 

I used to crew occasionally for an ex-RN captain who went to sea in 1926 and was still yachting on his 90th birthday in 2002.  He was one of the most senior captains, he led some heroic raids during WW2, and commanded HMS Bulwark before he retired.  On one occasion he and I were sailing his 38ft yacht in a squall off Dartmouth and he was so sick he went below while the boat was blown almost onto its beam ends with me left me struggling to hold her course.  He then confided in me that he had been seasick all his career.   Some folk never get over it.

 

 

[MHS]

59 minutes ago, Steilsteven said:

Well yes indeed but are you saying that that is the only possibility? After all that would mean that all the optician''s patients who lived on boats must have the condition.

Keith

I’ve been on boats from the age of 5 and never heard of this happening to boaters. I’m a Dispensing Optician, my wife an Optometrist and would be interested to see if there’s any evidence to prove a link. 

[MHS]

16 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

 

the lady was advised to hire a boat for a week or two before deciding if a life on the cut may be fun or hell;  it has me wondering why she doesn't think this might just be a good idea

 

Because new boaters on the forum never do like this suggestion. It’s in case it spoils the dream. 

They’d prefer to spend £100k and find out the hard way!

Edited October 28, 2017 by MHS

[Alan de Enfield]

If there was ever someone aptly named it would not be the OP 'Pru'.

Pru being a shortening of Prudence

 

1) prudence

noun

the state of being careful in the way you make decisions or spend money so that you avoid unnecessary risk

 

 

2) prudence

ˈpruːd(ə)ns/  

noun

noun: prudence; plural noun: prudences

1. the quality of being prudent; cautiousness.

   "we need to exercise prudence in such important matters"

    

    

    

 

[Bewildered]

20 hours ago, dmr said:

Real boaters dont get sea sick, they get land sick. (really)

Interesting, does this phenomenon usually happen on the way to the pub or the way back?

I only ask because a couple of weeks ago I went to the pub and had 5 pints of Old Rosie and on the way back I felt decidedly dodgy; does this mean I'm a real boater now? 

Edited October 28, 2017 by Bewildered

[Mike Todd]

21 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

You will be fine, you will get used to it very quickly. The K and A is a canal where you buy a boat and moor up on it without needing to ever move, they are not under the durestiction of the 14 day rule.

deleted - twas a bit unkind

Edited October 28, 2017 by Mike Todd