Hi Joseph - welcome to the forum! It's a good question and I remember that painting well. There is an overwhelming amount of detail in the scene (I like that!) but it does require significant simplification. I've attached the photo I used as a reference - you'll see that there has been some severe 'pruning' of elements in the photo, in much the same way as we might tackle an unruly shrub in the garden. I did a few small thumbnail sketches just to play around with arrangements of boats to settle on a composition that I was happy with. In the painting, it then becomes important to work across the whole painting, building up the washes everywhere and not getting stuck in one area, applying detail that you then realise is too much. It's a difficult balance to strike sometimes - too little detail in a complex scene and the painting just doesn't seem to read well; too much and it becomes a busy mess!