Twilight of the Liveaboards
Photo: Victor Llorente On a recent evening in June, the sun was sinking over the Hudson River and the few dozen boats docked at the 79th Street Boat Basin bobbed in a light breeze. A handful of them are residential, with owners who have lived at the boat basin for upward of three decades. It was hard to imagine a more idyllic, if slightly raffish and odd, corner of New York City to call home. And then another boat passed by — nothing special, recreational, maybe 35-feet long — and the bobbing at the dock turned violent, the boats’ masts slanting precipitously. The wake had hit...