Sailing – Philosophy For Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why We Sail

This revealing collection of essays probes the philosophicalmysteries of sailing, looking for the wisdom we can glean from thisancient craft. It digs more deeply into the meaning and valueof the sport than do how–to books or travel/adventure accounts.Contributors include philosophers, academics from otherdisciplines, and others intimately involved in the sport. All sharean abiding interest in sailing and the belief that it teachesprofound life lessons to those who sail. They articulate theintense engagement people have with sailing craft and with the manydifferent forms that sailing takes.

This book will enhance sailors′ appreciation, and enrich theirexperience, of the sport. At the same time, philosophers willdiscover thought–provoking examples of the way that philosophicalreflection comes to life when it is applied to the concreteactivities to which people commit themselves.

Foreword: The Craft and the Mystery viii
John Rousmaniere

The Philosophical Sailor: An Introduction to Sailing Philosophy for Everyone xiv
Patrick Goold

Acknowledgments xxiii

PART 1 PASSING THROUGH PAIN AND FEAR IN THE PLACE OFPERPETUAL UNDULATION 1

1 Ships of Wood and Men of Iron: Voyaging the Old–FashionedWay and Seeking Meaning in Adversity 3
Jack Stillwaggon

2 Winning Philosophy: Developing Patience, Inner Strength,and an Eye for the Good Lanes 12
Gary Jobson

3 "Hard a′ Lee": Why the Work of Sailing Can Be Great Fun23
Crista Lebens

4 Solo Sailing as Spiritual Practice: A Phenomenology ofMastery and Failure at Sea 36
Richard Hutch

PART 2 THE MEANING OF THE BOAT THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT47

5 Buddha s Boat: The Practice of Zen in Sailing49
James Whitehill

6 Freedom of the Seas: The Stoic Sailor 61
Gregory Bassham and Tod Bassham

7 Sailors of the Third Kind: Sailing and Self–Becoming in theShadow of Heraclitus 72
Steven Horrobin

PART 3 BEAUTY AND OTHER AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF THE SAILINGEXPERIENCE 83

8 What the Race to Mackinac Means 85
Nicholas Hayes

9 Sailing, Flow, and Fulfillment 96
Steve Matthews

10 On the Crest of the Wave: The Sublime, Tempestuous,Graceful, and Existential Facets of Sailing 109
Jesús Ilundáin–Agurruza, Luísa GagliardiniGraça, and José Ángel Jáuregui–Olaiz

11 Navigating What Is Valuable and Steering a Course in Pursuitof Happiness 122
Jesse Steinberg and Michael Stuckart

PART 4 PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL SAILOR133

12 Do You Have to Be (an) Einstein to Understand Sailing?135
Sebastian Kuhn

13 Paradoxes of Sailing: The Physics of Sailing and theImport of Thought Experiments 148
John D. Norton

14 The Necessity of Sailing: Of Gods, Fate, and the Sea164
Tamar M. Rudavsky and Nathaniel Rudavsky–Brody

15 The Channel: An Old Drama by Which the Soul of a HealthyMan is Kept Alive 176
Hilaire Belloc

Notes on Contributors 180

Editor
Patrick Goold is Associate Professor of Philosophy atVirginia Wesleyan College. His current research focuses on definingrationality. He is co–editor with Steven Emmanuel of the Blackwellanthology Modern Philosophy from Descartes to Nietzsche.Patrick is passionate about sailing, and, in addition tomaintaining a small daysailer and a cruising boat of his own,frequently crews on the boats of others. The bays and sounds ofVirginia and North Carolina are his home waters but he has sailedthe length of the East Coast of the United States from Hilton Headto Long Island Sound, made a Bermuda crossing, done club racing inBrittany, and cruised in the Lesser Antilles.

Series Editor
Fritz Allhoff is an Associate Professor in the Philosophydepartment at Western Michigan University, as well as a seniorresearch fellow at the Australian National University sCentre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In additionto editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, he is alsothe volume editor or co–editor for several titles, includingWine and Philosophy (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey andPhilosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food andPhilosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley–Blackwell,2007).  His academic research interests engage variousfacets of applied ethics, ethical theory, and the history andphilosophy of science.

I highly recommend the wisdom filled and engaging book Sailing– Philosophy For Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why WeSail edited by Patrick Goold, to any students who studyphilosophy, students of any disciplines, practicing sailors, oranyone interested in the great and timeless questions posed byphilosophy since the beginning of time. This book is one that youwill return to for inspiration, wisdom, and solace again andagain.   ( Blog Business World , 2 February2013)  I highly recommend the wisdom filled and engaging book Sailing– Philosophy For Everyone: Catching the Drift of Why WeSail edited by Patrick Goold, to any students who studyphilosophy, students of any disciplines, practicing sailors, oranyone interested in the great and timeless questions posed byphilosophy since the beginning of time. This book is one that youwill return to for inspiration, wisdom, and solace again andagain.   ( MoneyTalks , 3 February 2013) Edited by a professor of philosophy and with a (verygood) foreword by yachting writer John Rousmaniere, this essaycollection probes why we sail and what we can learn fromit.   ( Classic Boat ,  1 October2012)