Mussel Ridge 46 and Owner Featured in Soundings Magazine
Owner David Szewczul at the helm of Disruptor. Chris Mandelburg photo
The March issue of Soundings magazine featured an epic 8 page story on Newport Yacht Builders’ client and our most recent new build, the 46-foot tuna boat Disruptor. Thanks to Gary Caputi for capturing the story of how David Szewczul found the way to his dream boat in collaboration with Newport Yacht Builders.
Worth the Wait: The Disruptor
An avid tuna fisherman builds his dream boat—a 46-foot Mussel Ridge—with expertise from a Rhode Island custom builder. By Gary Caputi
As a principal specialist in engineering and finance at Pratt and Whitney in Connecticut, David Szewczul, 29, oversees financials for a team of jet propulsion engineers in commercial and military aviation. It’s an exacting, executive-level position with a lot of responsibility. You could say Szewczul (pronounced chef-shul) is a hands-on numbers guy. But he also has saltwater in his veins and tunas swimming through his dreams.
One of the first tunas landed was by David and his father, also named David.
Szewczul has pursued bluefin tuna near shore and yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the offshore canyons from the center console boats he’s owned over the years, the most recent a 41-foot Sea Hunter. At the same time, he’s long had a reverence for traditional commercial tuna boats like those featured on the reality show Wicked Tuna. That interest drove him to strike out in a different direction: He made the decision to sell his production boat and build his own Downeaster. Little did he realize the project would require a couple of years of research, development, planning and financial discipline. But when the boat splashed last summer, Szewczul’s 46-foot Mussel Ridge Disruptor became the envy of tuna fishermen far and wide.