Healthy Boating and Sailing

Optimize Your Health & Performance on the Water

Let’s face it, we all want to be healthy. But on the water, while boating or sailing, our health is constantly being challenged. And if our health is compromised, it will directly affect our performance on the water.

This book will help you optimize your health and improve your performance, whether you are boating or sailing in the bay or out in the ocean or if you are competing in your club or going out for a solo adventure.

After reading this book, you will understand your body and how you can improve your health and performance on the water. We are all unique and must learn the secrets of our own bodies to learn how we can adapt to the stresses of the nautical environment. Once we recognize these stresses and how they affect us, we will be able to stay healthy and perform at peak efficiency on the water.

Healthy Boating and Sailing covers all aspects of life on the water, including:

Seasickness · Cold weather sailing · Sailor’s skin · Infectious diseases · Nutrition · Accidents and injuries · Psychology — solo and group behavior · Sound and navigation · Heat and dehydration · Hazardous marine life · Vision on the water · Exercise · Sleep · Sports psychology

Chapter Breakdown

Michael Martin Cohen, M.D.

The first time I experienced seasickness I wanted to die! But let me start at the beginning. In 1974 I moved to Boston with my wife to begin my neurology training.  We decided on a lark to enroll in an introductory sailing course on the Charles River and we continued to sail the Charles River after work and on weekends.

After completing my training, I returned home to begin the practice of neurology in Philadelphia. I decided to take a navigation course out of Annapolis, Maryland. We left the dock and headed south out of Annapolis directly into a squall. It was then that I experienced my first and worst attack of seasickness. After missing most of a full day, I recovered enough to participate; but on returning home, I realized how little I understood about seasickness. Like a young, eager physician, I researched the topic, realizing that it was a brain problem. I presented the topic of seasickness at our hospital neurology grand rounds. It was well received, and I summarized the information in an article for Yachting Magazine, published in 1981. After completing the magazine article, it became apparent that seasickness was but one of the conditions with which sailors should be more familiar.

Out of that research came the first edition of this book entitled “Dr. Cohen's Healthy Sailor Book.”

Contact Michael Martin Cohen, M.D.