Exercising on a boat - Look what I fell in love with!

Dec 25, 2000
5,704
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA

TomY

Alden Forum Moderator
Jun 22, 2004
2,758
Alden 38' Challenger yawl Rockport Harbor
This. Every year when leave the boat for 4-6 weeks to visit family, we gain 10lbs. Once back on the boat in our normal life, we lose it and easily maintain our previous weights. After several years of this, we have definitely fingered snacking and huge portions of rich food as the culprit. We aren't fitness freaks, and don't watch or limit our eating in any way, and often eat things that aren't nutritious - but when we return to the US, we are always floored by how much everyone eats. We can split meals in some restaurants and still have food left over. Some of the burritos served in Mexican restaurants are larger than frisbees. Everything is shoved full of cheese and cured meats, and everyone is grabbing boxes and bags of snacks in between meals. The TV seems to be nothing but advertisements for unhealthy food and fast food restaurants, interspersed with diet foods/drugs and weight-loss programs. I do, however, prefer these advertisements over the scheduled programming - which seems to mostly consist of people screaming at each other, the audience, and the viewers.

Most of the people we meet out cruising are of moderate weight - not skinny, but not fat - and unconcerned with diet. A common conversation after someone visits the US is disbelief on how much food people eat there and how much time they spend thinking about food.

Mark
After more than 3 weeks, sure enough I'd lost 6-7 pounds. My wife (who was out less) about half that. We find that weight loss predictable but perplexing. We eat the same foods on the boat and she does most of the cooking. We don't eat any processed foods and love fresh foods, leafy vegetables and lots of greens, we enjoy wine with dinner. She is mostly vegetarian, I am not, so we enjoy proteins of fish and chicken mostly looking for fresh fish in our sailing. I can't say we eat in restaurants more or less on the boat because we don't often, anyway.

Outside of the extensive rowing (I do most of that preferring to) and added walking we do, with diets the same on the boat, we suspect we eat less onboard, or maybe less between meals. She thinks it could have something to do with our water intake that seems to ramp up when we're on the boat for an extended time.

We don't drink from the boats tanks so bring our water with us. You get a good sense of water intake as you fill small bottles and glasses from gallon jugs of drinking water.

For me, I think it's a combination of added exercise and less food consumption. The result is good, no matter what the cause!
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Don't forget about the rocking. Constant small muscle adjustments in balance, raising your arms to grab hand holds as you move about the boat, the twisting, bending, leaning and threading contortions you have to do to get around the dining table and cabin furnishings. On a boat, even laying in your bunk engages muscles to brace you when a wake passes by. It's like going from being a track runner to playing tennis. A whole different group of muscles are involved.
Oh, did I mention the constant head ducking in the companionway?

- Will (Dragonfly)
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
I used a thing called a Bullworker when I was aboard ship back in the 70's. Easily fit in my seabag too.
 
Aug 2, 2018
96
Beneteau Oceanis 40cc Little River, SC
Aug 2, 2018
96
Beneteau Oceanis 40cc Little River, SC
Don't forget about the rocking. Constant small muscle adjustments in balance, raising your arms to grab hand holds as you move about the boat, the twisting, bending, leaning and threading contortions you have to do to get around the dining table and cabin furnishings. On a boat, even laying in your bunk engages muscles to brace you when a wake passes by. It's like going from being a track runner to playing tennis. A whole different group of muscles are involved.
Oh, did I mention the constant head ducking in the companionway?

- Will (Dragonfly)
I know this to be true for sure. My ab muscles get stronger just from the balancing!
 
Feb 11, 2017
122
former Tartan 30 New London, CT area
Going up the mast, I hate being being reliant on someone below to get me up and down. Bought a rock climbing harness and a pair of ascenders - one ascender to the harness, the other to a pair of foot loops. They work fine!
One pointer - you need a tool bag. But don't have it too low - make sure you can get into it. One that hangs around the neck seems to work best. Take a few potatoes to drop on the folks on the dock giving you a hard time.