As sailors we watch a lot of sailing movies. One of our favorites is Captain Ron. But this is obviously a hilarious made up fictional tale of a sailor. Occasionally we want to watch something about real sailors and their exploits. We take inspiration from people who are out there pushing the limits. These are true adventurers and explorers.
The list below is, in our opinion, the twelve best sailing documentaries out there. These are real people who have done amazing things. Some of them are still doing amazing things.
Chasing Bubbles
The footage from this documentary was shot by Alex Rust, who circumnavigated the world on his very small boat with several friends. However, the documentary was actually made by his friends without Rust using the footage, photos and stories from the people who were on the journey.
This is a sailing classic. One of my favorites.
Chasing Bubbles can be found on YouTube for free.
Coyote: The Mike Plant Story
This documentary about Mike Plant, a solo racing sailor is quite unique, as is Mike Plant. We had never heard of Mike Plant, but the story is a good one. The world of solo sailing is dominated by the French, but Mike Plant was making waves and building momentum.
We were pleased we took a chance on this one, we had no idea what it was about.
Deep Water
Deep Water is a documentary about the 1968 Golden Globe Race of solo sailors to race around the world. There are a lot of stories within the race, there was only one finisher. Tilda Swinton is the narrator.
Maiden
The Whitbread around the world race was the precursor to the current Volvo Ocean Race. The Whitbread was a crewed yacht race, and in 1989 and all female crew entered to race. This is the documentary about that crew and their skipper Tracy Edwards.
Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of the World
An interesting kind of a documentary about a hand built 120 foot boat – Infinity and her crew as they sail from New Zealand to Patagonia. 16 crew with very little budget, the Infinity sailed 8000 miles with a stop in Antarctica sailing through the southern ocean. This is a very good story of modern adventure on a weird gypsy boat showing you there are still adventures to be had by real modern explorers.
Morning Light
This documentary follows the crew of Morning Light, a group of 18-23 year old’s as they train for and compete in the Transpac sailing race. The Transpac is a race from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
Red Dot on the Ocean
The number of people who have sailed around Cape Horn is very small, even smaller is the number of people who have sailed through the Northwest Passage. Matt Rutherford has done both, he did them while sailing nonstop around the entirety of the North and South American continents.
Rutherford was the first to accomplish these feats. This is the documentary of his accomplishment, an amazing feat of seamanship.
Kon Tiki (1950)
This is the Oscar winning documentary of Thor Heyerdahl’s original 1947 expedition. Heyerdahl surmised that French Polynesia was originally populated from South America. He departed from South America on a homemade balsa raft to prove his theory. This is a great documentary.
The Weekend Sailor
This is a great documentary about the 1974 Whitbread around the world crewed sailing race and the Mexican skipper who no one had ever heard about entering the race.
Ramon Carlin, who was a weekend sailor, beat the best sailors in the world at their own game. This is the documentary about the race and the man. Great film.
The Old Man & the Sea: Return to Cuba
This is a documentary about Finbar Gittleman, a master sailor who left Cuba 50 years earlier when Castro took over. He returns to Cuba to see what happened to his homeland.
Following Seas
Following Seas is a documentary about a family of ocean voyagers and their travels. Bob and Nancy Griffith made 20 ocean voyages over 20 years. This is the story of their voyages, challenges and sacrifices along the way. It truly is a remarkable story.
Hell or High Seas
The documentary of US Navy veteran Taylor Greiger and writer Stephen O’Shea’s adventure around Cape Horn to raise awareness about the challenges veterans face as they exit active duty military service.