[joewehry]

It's difficult to evaluate this well on the web, and ideally, I'd do two prints and see which is closer to your intended results. Personally, off the web image, I like the atmosphere and feel of the first one better. The softness of the background encourages the viewer to focus on the sharper and closer boat and the blur gives a nice feel to the piece. The sharper detail of the second one encourages the eye to wander more and a somewhat forced increase in perceived depth of field. If you can strike a balance between the two.... : - )

Also, out of curiosity, have you tried flipping the image? I wonder how it would read from left to right, with the boat ending at the right edge? Just something for play.

Have fun experimenting, it's a very nice image to work with!