Our top boating and sailing movies

Image credit: Paris Plages

With colder weather on the way, you might have more time to spend on the sofa rather than on the water. So to keep you going we've selected our top boating and sailing movies. Action, drama, adventure, edge-of-the-seat scary stuff, romance… It’s all there on our list!

1. Australia and New Zealand join forces for the movie Dead Calm. If you rate the acting prowess of Nicole Kidman and Sam Neil and don’t mind a good thriller, then take a seat. These famous Aussie and Kiwi actors were then spring chickens, as this movie came out in 1989. If your memory needs a jog, it’s about John Ingram and his wife Rae who are spending some time isolated at sea after a tragedy. Idyllic days are disturbed when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.
2. Released in 1996 is the adventure/drama White Squall. Featuring Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall and John Savage in lead roles, this movie is an action-packed drama about teenage boys discovering discipline and comradery on an ill-fated sailing voyage.
3. Commercial fishermen may know plenty about their own hunting ground but that doesn’t necessarily mean the ocean doesn’t hold surprises. In The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney, an unusually intense storm pattern catches some commercial fishermen unaware and puts them in mortal danger.
4. And now for one offering some romance (and adventure too). It’s topical as it’s set during an America’s Cup series of yachting races (well, we say topical as we’re not going to let the latest America’s Cup result fade in our memories any time soon, are we?). Introducing… Wind. Wind features Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey and Cliff Robertson and is based on the 1987 America’s Cup race. It's plot features Will Parker, played by Matthew Modine, losing the America’s Cup to the Australians and forming his own syndicate to win it back.
5. And, finally, there’s Adrift. This 2018 movie is a true story of survival, as a young couple's chance encounter leads them first to love, and then on the adventure of a lifetime as they face one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. Starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as avid sailors, this movie has been described as an “unforgettable story about the resilience of the human spirit and the transcendent power of love”.