Point of View
There are 4,000 pieces of art at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, including 900 paintings. It’s a collection estimated to be worth about $25 billion. I was moving through the galleries at a good clip on a cold afternoon in January, trying to take in as much as I could before closing, when the quirky craft in the oil painting shown above caught my eye.
“The Studio Boat” ( Le Bateau-atelier) was produced in 1876 by French Impressionist Claude Monet, and it’s a depiction of the artist at work aboard his own vessel on the Seine. I’m always interested in a story about how and why a person came to own a particular boat, so I lingered in front of the painting for some time— long enough to enjoy it, and to do some Googling. I learned that Monet bought the boat around 1873, soon after moving to Argenteuil in the suburbs of Paris. He described her as a “cabin made out of planks,” where he had just enough deck space to set up an easel.
The craft struck me as very low-tech, even for the late 19th century, but as it turns out, the boat enabled
Monet to paint views from the water that would otherwise have been inaccessible to him. Had he never been given that access, he may have never created some of his most celebrated works, including the series “Boats at Argenteuil.”
Time spent with this painting reminded me of one of the great joys of boat ownership: It can offer unique perspectives and singular experiences. In this issue, you’ll meet a few people who have that all figured out.
In “Worth the Wait,” David Szewczul of Connecticut explains how his passion for tuna fishing drove him to leave his production center console boat behind and build a semi-custom, 46-footer that strongly resembles a commercial fishing boat. The project took a lot of time, money and brain power for the full-time executive to complete, but for Szewczul, the investments yielded exceptional moments on the water. The boat is large and comfortable enough to carry him to places he hasn’t fished before, and for the first time, he can spend two or three days offshore—long enough to begin to see things in another light.
In the story “Ivy League Effort” you’ll meet a group of Princeton students who brought fresh eyes to marine engineering. Creative thinking enabled them to modify a power train for a hydroplane that recently set a record for electric propulsion: 114.2 mph. Some of these students may not be serious boaters yet, but their success has weighty implications for the future, as it demonstrates that electric power only gets better.
My inbox gets its fair share of letters from readers who are working toward their own visions of time spent on the water. Most recently, John Torelli shared his plan to have a Venetian-style tender built that can serve as a day boat for coastal trips from his home port of San Diego. He’s been boating most of his life and has logged many miles offshore in trawlers—he owned four. Now, he’s ready to absorb unfamiliar views from the helm. That’s what gets him excited. I think the same can be said for many of us.