Welcome to Utopia!

Images via Gizmag

Project Utopia has more in common with an oil rig than it does with a yacht, and in the word's of the consultancy, "breaks the traditional naval architectural mould which the market has come to expect and offers a truly unique outlook free from any conventional design constraints."

...Yacht Island Design's Project Utopia measures some 330 ft (100 m) in length and breadth, spans 11 decks and has the equivalent floorspace of a present-day cruise liner - indeed, and I'm sure this will be a draw-card to any aspiring wealthy megalomaniacs, there is enough space to create an entire micro-nation.

First and foremost, the island's design is stable, being based on a four legged platform and designed for minimum motion in the most extreme sea conditions. Each leg supports a fully azimuthing thruster and with four such units, the design can redeploy between desired locations at slow speed. _Gizmag

The Project Utopia seastead design is clearly oriented toward the luxury-loving segment of the population, so it will be more similar to a luxury cruise ship than an independent country. And yet, if it adds to our wealth of knowledge of the different ways of living on the ocean, it could serve to help create a more revolutionary type of seastead.

First published at Al Fin Potpourri

Most of the important commercial opportunities of the sea occur close to the shore, on continental shelves. Oil & gas, fishing, aquaculture, tourism, etc. all tend to occur within no more than a few hundred miles from shore. Most of this area would be within a particular nation's control, and out of bounds for "independent" neo-nations. Deep-sea mining could conceivably support an independent ocean community, if it had the technological expertise and could negotiate international treaties of the sea.

The more speculative industries such as offshore banking, gambling, experimental medical procedures, advanced experimental life extension therapies, unconventional sexual opportunities, etc. would have to provide regular and reliable access to outsiders, both incoming and outgoing. The open ocean -- outside national zones of influence -- can be a very unfriendly and unpredictable place.

A seastead that seemed as safe, solid, and accessible from the outside as an island, but was as mobile as a large cruise ship (to avoid large storm systems), might be ideal. So far, Al Fin marine architects have not seen a practical design that can satisfy those criteria.

Offshore Oil Production Moving to Seafloor Robotic Cities: So What Can We Do With All Those Abandoned Oil Rigs?

Neal Asher
There are over 1.3 trillion barrels of untapped oil under the seafloors. But what is the safest way of retrieving all of that oil -- much of it at deadly crushing depths?

Brazil intends to replace its fleet of floating offshore oil rigs with 2,000 metre deep "underwater cities" of robotic oil workers, part automated and part controlled from a remote location by human operators. So far, so good. But what will be done with all the huge, obsolete floating oil rigs? Why not turn them into floating resorts and marine research centres?

Inhabitat

The idea is not new. In fact, the (disputed) world’s smallest country is an old oil platform. In the design by Ku Yee Kee and Hor Sue-Wern, the reclaimed oil rig is layered in rings of habitation units sharing center common and recreation areas. The stacked units share an incredible view of the vast ocean. Beneath the water are circular labs for marine research. The designers looked like they were having some fun, inserting a pleasure boat launch, cantilevered pool, and a huge domed assembly room crowning the rig. _Inhabitat_via_Dvice

Inhabitat
Notice the subsurface marine science research labs -- or are they undersea restaurants or hotel rooms? There is room for flexibility in design, depending upon the outfitters and management.

And there is no reason why serious and progressive-minded seasteaders should not substitute small modular nuclear reactors in place of unreliable and intermittent wind and solar power devices. The last thing you want is to be stuck in the middle of the ocean without enough power to make freshwater, keep the lights on, or to cook your seafood.

Always keep your eyes open for opportunities to go beyond the ordinary.

On Taking a More Nitty-Gritty Approach to Seasteading

More Designs Here
Up to this point, seasteading seems to be more about superficial design and "gee-whiz! futurism" than about actually building a seastead as an ongoing concern -- as a self-sustaining alternative to government monopoly. The Seasteading Institute has promoted a number of conferences and has achieved a good deal of media coverage. That is always helpful for raising interest in the general ideas, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty of making a life on the ocean, most of the ideas one finds on the site lack heft. In the end, a seastead will have to pay for itself.

It appears that aesthetics may be playing too great a role -- and economics too small a role -- in many of the themes and schemes thrown around in popular seasteading circles.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel in terms of basic marine structure. Actual commercial enterprises such as the oil & gas industry and marine mining concerns, have made significant engineering advances and continue to do so, in terms of habitable ocean-going vessels which are also working commercial platforms. It is possible that the movement could use the input of more no-nonsense marine architects and engineers, as well as that of more persons familiar with the ins and outs of making a living from the sea.

The early seasteads need to be tough, strong, and relatively inexpensive. There is no need to win a beauty contest. One relatively inexpensive building material which could be used to construct working seasteads is pre-stressed concrete:

Through innovation with precast and prestressed concrete, some latest trends are now focused toward the development and construction of floating ocean platforms used to extract minerals, energy, and other natural resources.

Precast and prestressed concrete platforms have been constructed to support phosphate processing plants, floating liquefied propane gas (LPG) processing and storage facilities, and oil exploration platforms that are transported afloat and grounded for drilling.

For ocean platforms, the size and weight of prestressed and precast concrete construction will provide the greatest dynamic stability due to its large inertial advantage. Long-term durability of concrete construction in an ocean environment has been proven by actual service of existing prestressed precast concrete platforms over the last several decades. _civil-online

If the trend toward more and more offshore drilling and mining enterprises continues, it is likely that a great deal of the preliminary testing of possible designs and materials will be done by industrial concerns.

By taking advantage of the lessons already learned and earned by offshore industries, seasteaders who are serious about pulling their own weight can find starting opportunities and niches. Focusing on "pay as you go" approaches is not nearly as glamorous as a lot of the ideas being thrown around at some popular seasteading sites and forums, but it is an approach that is more likely to work in the long run.

From an earlier article at Al Fin Potpourri

500 ft Personal Seastead: "Streets of Monaco" for US$ 1 Billion

Forbes
On the top deck you will notice replicas of the Monte Carlo Casino, Hotel de Paris, Cafe de Paris, La Rascasse, and Loews Hotel, as well as a fully functional go-kart miniature Monaco Grand Prix track.

Other extravagant bells and whistles include multiple swimming pools, a swim-in Jacuzzi bar, a multi-use court for tennis and basketball, a ‘dance hall’, a spa with a hair salon, and enough space to accommodate 16 guests and 70 staff. And don’t forget the submarine and helipad. _Forbes

"The Streets of Monaco" does not appear to be designed for the open seas. Of course, if she is fast enough, she can stay out of the way of the larger storms using state of the art communications.

The yacht may never be built, but every time large and unconventional boat designs are engineered, there is the potential for innovation -- which can then be borrowed for use in more practical seasteads. This yacht is designed to accomodate roughly 85 people (guests plus crew). As a working seastead, similar sized boats could accomodate many more in reasonable comfort -- as long as luxury is not required.

The true breakthroughs in seastead engineering for deepwater living are likely to come from the oil & gas industry, as marine and petroleum engineers look to deeper and deeper waters for new energy jackpots.

An Early Seastead Design

WHEN the continents of the world have become overcrowded and trans-oceanic airplane travel is as common as travel by steamers at present, we may see the establishment of huge mid-ocean cities such as is shown in the above drawing, which illustrates the plans recently made by Leon Feoquinos, a French engineer of Marseilles.

The foundation is to be a network of steel sections, held together with cables, to act as a gigantic breakwater against the heavy seas. In the center there will be a large enclosed harbor that will serve as a landing place for hydroplanes and a port for ocean liners. Later other features will be added, such as a spacious hotel, gaming casino, and four huge towers. _ModernMechanix

A robust design for the breakwater and flotation structures will be the determining physical factor for whether a seastead will survive in an open ocean environment. Economic, political, and military factors may prove more important than issues of physical design and robust resilience to the elements, in the long run, however.

The 1931 French designer envisioned a steel girder and cable design, but it is unlikely that the materials technology of the age would have been capable of standing up to the rigours of the open seas. If nothing else, such a structure would have likely been sunk by the allies during WWII, to prevent German-occupied France from using it as a launch pad for attacks against North America.

It appears to me that the Chinese have missed a gigantic opportunity for building a fleet of seasteads, for purposes of trade and power projection. Sophisticated seasteads would require even more sophisticated shipyards for construction. During the 1990s and 2000s, only the Chinese were growing quickly enough to justify the construction of such a super-shipyard. But once built, such a yard could spin out seasteads like ocean-going frisbees.

With the coming economic and governmental problems soon to descend upon China, it is likely the country has missed its chance.

Converting Oil Rigs to Idyllic Diving Resorts

SeaVentures Dive Resort

When you first discover the underwater wonderland of a thriving tropical coral reef, you will understand why people fly thousands and tens of thousands of miles for the experience. Off the east coast of Malaysian Borneo sits an abandoned oil rig that has been converted into a diving resort -- Seaventures. People come from Britain, Japan, China, and a few from the US.

"So far as we know, we're the only ones in the world using an oil rig as a hotel and diving platform," said Suzette Harris, the Singaporean owner. Her father-in-law, a regional Malaysian official, bought the rig in Singapore in 1988 (there, she said, "you can buy a used drilling platform just like you can buy a used boat."). He had it towed into Borneo waters.

No one would confuse the result with a luxury hotel. The 25 tiny guest rooms, although spotlessly clean, resemble those on a cruise ship that has seen better days. A visitor's room had a rusty metal locker without hangers to serve as a closet, and the reading lights and shower water heater didn't work. The air smelled from the oil powering the generators. For recreation, an employee band every few nights blasted rock music into the hours when one might have wanted to sleep. Meals were far from haute cuisine, although fresh and bounteous. A three-day, two-night scuba-diving package for $516, per-person double occupancy, includes room, meals, transfers, equipment rental and guarantees of a morning of three dives at Sipadan Island. _WSJ_via_ImpactLab

Not exactly luxury accomodations, but the surroundings should more than make up for the spartan lodgings.

Similar abandoned oil rigs sit idle around the world, when they could be put to very good use.

Underwater Paradise

For example, in the Gulf of Mexico off the US coast, there are many dozens of abandoned rigs that the Obama administration is demanding be dismantled and hauled away as trash. What a waste -- and by an administration that prides itself on its hope and change! Why not help to institute positive change, and turn the abandoned rigs into thriving ongoing concerns? It is easy to create artificial reefs which attract entire new ecosystems. Why not make it a part of an overall plan to rejuvenate the Gulf economy -- after the Obama Pelosi devastation and mismanagement following the BP oil spill?

Unfortunately, the O-P regime seems to be more concerned with destroying the ability of energy companies to make profits and stay in business, than it is with creating a thriving and prosperous nation. Too, too bad.