If you ask me, just because something is philosophical doesn't mean it's off-topic in a sailing forum.
First off, sailing is a lifestyle, replete with existential choices about life and the living of it. The sailing life, some say, is about freedom, others say it's the opposite - it's about imprisoning oneself in a floating jail cell. Then there's the obvious question - why do we do it and what does it mean to each of us? Is sailing about getting in touch with nature, or about getting in touch with ourselves, getting closer to who we are or running away from who we are, finding our limits or self-imposing limits?
Or if you want to get into ethics and morality, is there such a thing on the ocean or is it everyone for themselves? Technically, it may be lawless, but somehow or other a lot of us wind up practicing some unwritten code of ethics, we live by it and we have an unspoken expectation that others follow it too - and usually they do. Heck, sailsmanship is a kind of ethics - it's about the right and wrong way to do things, or perhaps it's more of an etiquette, like whether the fork goes on the left or right.
And the sailing lifestyle can be said to be a shared world-view, shared intersubjective experiences. We are a community that understands some things others do not. We share a love for something which other communities do not.
Or how about topics such whether boats are works of art, capable of moving the soul, of uplifting numinosity of spirit,
lines and symbols of symmetry and perfection, or merely practical tools more or less like a hammer or screwdriver.
Or how about sailing as the art or science of bringing order to the high chaos of the ocean? Man against nature? Or man alongside with and at one with nature? Man tempting fate, tempting the odds. Tiny humanity against powerful nature.
I could go on and on.
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