"The PT boat, the thirties commuter boat, and the rumrunner." The more he thought about and worked on the boat, the more, Joel says, he wanted it to have a life beyond hotel stationery - but not merely as a one-off for his own use. "I had three fast hulls in mind," he says. In the winter of 1995, he was somewhere - he doesn't remember precisely - drawing a long, lean powerboat with classic lines and real speed. When he's on tour, Joel spends idle hours drawing boats on hotel stationery. She looks like a thing whose sole reason for being is to delight the eye. We stood an artistic distance off in the company of Joel and boatbuilder Peter Needham and stared at her. Her owner had sent her back to Coecles Harbor - from Florida - for routine maintenance and brightwork touch-up. Lady Carol, one of the first Runabouts sold, sat in a cradle outside. Its neighbor was already decked, engines installed, and the finishing work had begun. People were wiring that boat and positioning her balsa-cored bulkheads. One was the shell of a hull, which had recently arrived from North End Composites in Maine where the decks and hulls are molded. Two were in the building shed when we arrived. I visited Coecles Harbor Marina and Boatyard, Shelter Island, New York to check out a Runabout with a friend who was in the market for a new boat. He likes his boat, and he enjoys being in the boat business, though neither he nor the Shelter Island Runabout is typical of the business. Sure, there's a marketing component to this, but one senses that he'd come anyway. This 38-footer has gotten her share of press attention, and Joel, if he's in town, makes it a point to show up to talk about her. Without him, there would be no Shelter Island Runabout. She was Bill Joel's idea from the outset. ​Singer-songwriter Billy Joel often draws boats in the idle hours between concerts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |