One of the cooler things I saw at last fall's Monaco Yacht Show was the rather large "tent" in which was housed a model of WHY, Wally Hermes Yacht's outrageous-looking 58-meter (190-foot) vessel. And yet in my case, the old maxim of "out of sight, out of mind" rang true: After flying back to the states, I didn't think of the boat again. That all changed last week when I opened an e-mail with renderings of the sleek, piano-shaped vessel and was transported back to that snappy Monaco display. And though I'm still not sure the yacht's lines are my cup of tea, I will admit to spending several minutes being utterly mesmerized by the vessel's design. 

As many of you already know, the idea for WHY was born several years back when two companies—Hermes and Wally—set their sights at designing and building a vessel that would revolutionize life at sea. The aim was to build a vessel that was not only beautiful, but that maximized living spaces and that pushed the boundaries of what we've come to expect from onboard architecture. Or as Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermes has said, “The WHY 58x38 yacht looks very unfamiliar but it remains on a human scale. Space is the greatest luxury on the sea, but I believe the new luxury will be the time to enjoy it."

But talking about the boat just doesn't do it justice. It is, without question, one of those things you've got to see to believe. So whether or not this is your first introduction to WHY, here are some images for you to mull over. At the very least, it's a decent way to kill a few minutes on what, in New York anyway, is a very grey Wednesday. Better yet, it's a reminder that the possibilities truly are endless.

Happy hump day, everyone.