Blueseed is a conceptual floating island-ship intended to house technology startup founders and employees only 30 minutes from California’s northern coast. The founders, who include an ex-Yahoo software engineer, plan to open the ship to inhabitants by the third fiscal quarter of 2013. Because the ship will be located 12 miles outside California in international waters, a visa is not needed, hopefully drawing in international entrepreneurs.There are some interesting aspects of such an idea, which is not, after all, all that much different then that proposed cruise ship that was going to stay at sea forever, with permanent housing for the wealthy who choose to live aboard.
On the other hand, well, my recollection of sailing off of the SF area is that it can be cold and unpleasant much of the time.
As you can see at the link, there are several proposed designs.
This idea seems to have been floated several times - see here, which describes an Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged motive.
I hope Galt doesn't get seasick.
More on "seasteading" from, of course, "The Seasteading Institute." They have a conference coming up at the end of the month. On dry land.
Not an original idea as you can tell from this "Redneck Houseboat" link. Redneck? I call it "creative engineering" and "thinking outside the box."
Maybe we need a conference. Bring your own
I'm not sure that I'd really want to shell out 1200 a month to live like I did as an ensign.
ReplyDeleteIf he's planning on anchoring this rig, his options are pretty much limited to the area between the mouth of San Francisco Bay and the Farallons, which can be really rough most of the year. Everywhere else, he's off the edge of the continental shelf and in really deep water.
They're still within the US EEZ, anyway, so it's not actually a government free zone. Waste and sewage will still fall under the various letter agencies and the Coast Guard (who will probably come to love them as much as they do the Sea Shepherd buffoons). It's a whale migration route, among other things, so they could run into problems with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, just to name one.
Another problem with this area is that it's real high traffic, one might become intimate with the Toyota Maru, should one loiter.
Supply is another question: the container loading and yacht transfer thing in their picture is fine, when the weather is nice, unrep by this method in the sort of weather that's common along that coast is another story.
I'm wondering how many of these folks have spent much time at sea. This probably sounds pretty good, during a week long cruise on the Love Boat or whilst fanatsizing about complete freedom from government (well, except USCG SAR, if this goes West, at sea), but after about the third month of seeing the same faces and places, all the time, it's probably going to be a lot less appealing.
Personally, I'd be more inclined towards a good ocean going sailing vessel, probably something along the lines of an old fishing ketch. Add SATCOM and a power supply and you can do the sort of work people in Silicon Valley largely tend to do from nearly anywhere, like the Caribbean or South Pacific. Then again I probably watched Adventures in Paradise too many times as a child.