Great idea, maybe if you can make the front of the ship not to be blurred it would better, because the background is now blurred too if you look in the front
Will post my vote latter to see if you made any changes

Interesting but awkward...the branch aligning with the bow of the ship cuts the image in half visually.

I agree with CMYK. I think it's better you get rid of the branches, or part of them, or resize it smaller.

CMYK46 and erikuri - thanks for the comments - very helpful, have acted on the advice given.

Nice chop Author good luck

very nice creation...i suggest that u use few color layers to achieve better blending...with this colors maybe u could use dark brown color layer with low opacity,dark green soft light layer and maybe gold color layer with opacity near 20%...just an idea...good luck

nice feel to this final image, well put together, author.

Thanks for the comment erathion, only just read it so it's too late to try it now - appreciated anyway!