On Board a Vintage Boat, Matthew Rhys Shows New Yorkers Their City from the Water

09.10.2023 - 16:43 / cntraveler.com / Ellis Island

As a flock of noisy jet skiers circle the Statue of Liberty on a warm October evening, Matthew Rhys looks out at the horizon. “There’s a Welsh word, hiraeth, which is loosely translated to ‘a longing for home,’" he says. “But it's something slightly more than that. It's a longing for something that can never be again.”

The Welsh-born, Emmy award-winning actor is a self-proclaimed analog who, in his words, “should have been born 80 years ago.” It’s a perhaps somewhat necessary attribute if you decide to restore a crumbling wooden boat like Rhys did, after purchasing a 1930s Wheeler on Ebay in 2017. (Ask Rhys how exactly one buys a boat on Ebay, and he’ll reply: “You drink a lot of whiskey.”) He charters the now-restored vessel out to small groups in New York Harbor—but the path to this point was not without its challenges.

The boat, incidentally named Rarebit—“fate!” says Rhys of the ode to the Welsh dish—is more than just a collectors item. It’s a rarity. Built by the Wheeler family in Brooklyn some 80 or so years ago, there are only four known documented Wheelers in existence; one of which, named Pilar, was famously owned by Ernest Hemingway as a means to satiate his enduring obsession with the ocean and deep sea fish. (The Hemingway tie was an irresistible connection, notes Rhys.) And while anyone with an ounce of experience with boats balked at the idea of restoring a famously temperamental wooden vessel with a built-in expiration date, Rhys was determined to not just bring it back to life, but into a new era, teaming up with Kelli Farwell, Rarebit’s now captain, for the journey.

Views of downtown Manhattan from Rarebit

Several years of physical and emotional labor later—caulking and cleaning through frigid New York winters and a lot of self-teaching by “watching old weird, grainy YouTube videos” during the pandemic—a friendship between Rhys and Farwell was solidified, and Rarebit finally became seaworthy again. In 2021, they began sailing New Yorkers and visitors alike past iconic sites like Ellis Island, Governors Island, and the Statue of Liberty under the moniker Moveable Feast (a reference to Hemingway's 1964 memoir), hosting Jaws-themed nights and multiple marriage proposals—even New York personality Al Roker has been taken for a spin.

This is how I find myself waiting at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park to meet Rhys, who leads me through the warren of the marina to Rarebit: a slick of mahogany amid a sea of white fiberglass yachts and speedboats. On board, a long, curved, six-seater polished wooden bench lines the deck; a small cabin area, loaded with thick wool blankets for chilly nights, houses the captain’s seat and leads down to a small galley. With the sound of a gramophone warbling