The Fascination of Sailing Boats

Sailing boats have been in use for thousands of years and we are still fascinated by them. There's a romance to setting forth onto the open sea with nothing but a tall ship and a star to steer her by, isn?'t there. Even if the open sea is a mud puddle and the sailing boat is a leaf with a toothpick-and-tissue sail, we love to stop and watch and maybe provide a few puffs of personal wind to push the little boat across the puddle.

What is there that fascinates us about sailing boats? Perhaps sailing boats symbolize freedom for us, or it's the man against nature (or God) theme. Art, poetry, literature and movies are some of the ways we capture our romance with sailing boats.

Sailing boats are the subject of very powerful, very iconic paintings. Consider Leutze's painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware. It symbolizes nobility, leadership and triumph over adversity. Mark Meyers'Wanderers depicts a single sailing boat on the open sea with only a seagull for company. It shouts about the triumph of man over nature. Turner's The Slave Ship, a picture of a ship in a storm, symbolizes the hellish violence of the slave trade.

What about movie images like Captain Jack Sparrow standing at the helm of the Black Pearl? The Pearl symbolizes freedom and independence. Captain Sparrow is only himself when he's in command of his sailing boat; it's who he is'a little dark, ragged and worse for the wear, but a sturdy ship nonetheless. Yes, indeed, we do all love our sailing boats