How big is a boat?

Floating City concept may not only be used to develop sea-going resorts for the rich, but also to solve the problems of some of the world's actual cities, like New Orleans and the like. Much more interesting to me.

Swimming City and Family Arks concepts being developed in Holland:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377050,00.htm

Living on water:
http://www.tudelft.nl/live/binaries/4eda7181-c7df-4e5f-982a-49c27a5e8f58/doc/DO051-18-22.pdf

 

seen them from driving by and they look very attractive, was /am going to look into it! in adam we also have an old hippie with roped together floating foam islands that even grow trees on it. saw real nice canadian waterhomes also. figer i would like something with a wheelhouse tho

 

O.K.
Let's put a wheelhouse then!
http://www.benford.us/index.html?coasters/
So, extrapolating Hong Kong's Aberdeen fishing village reality (And even the Dutch's barges reality), why don't we think about a new floating inland town concept, where houses move from one town to another when a neighbourhood change is needed? (Whatever the reason)
Or when going out for a weekend or visiting relatives or friends in another town we may go with our complete houseboat with us, much in the style of mobile road homes?
A new concept of floating towns where "parcels" are some kind of parking spaces for in-and-out floating vessel-homes?
Useful for Holland?

 

So to design such equipment, are you talking about a different form of marina? Maybe some kind of hubs that provide services such as fresh water, sewage treatment, fuel? To me an important part of the marina social aspect is the marina bar. So maybe a floating hub with a bar, a grocery store and a hardware store.

Maybe a setup could be designed where the hub had parking space only for tenders and outlying moorings for the boats. That would be less expensive for the boaters than a regular marina. It wiould give you the potential of affordably accommodating a larger group of vessels.

 

ive seen these neigborhoods and plan on visiting. was reading mooring on sinkable poles is not legal everywhere in holland and authority's work on new marinas for legal houseboats.

 

Gilly for a change there is something that I agree with (Careful walrus!) Whilst It needs to expanded in the hub so to speak, the concept in itself is extremely good - I like it. Mind you siting it could be a problem, if the 'boats' are on the edges they are open to all the bad weather that is thrown at them - unless we have only one berthing 'side' to the island and rotate it give a permanent lee! Worth a thought? (and Gilly if you can just stay off the gobblegook and talk a sensible language without the bu***** maths and stuff we might just get on a little better)?

 

Oh! and generally talking about soverignty and security, has anybody noticed all ships are registered somewhere and fly that country's flag! This means they allready owe allegiance to somebody (in other words a country 'owns' them!) - they pay taxes - some not much true, but they still pay!

 

I'll try to draw some sketches of what could be this floating-town-marina idea and post them by the weekend, as I have to travel for the next couple of days.

 

For some reason Guillermo's link does not get you there. This one does.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377050,00.html

I guess the last letter was missing.

When I was talking about such ideas on other threads last year, many members were saying it was a ridiculous idea and impractical. Actually there is no limit to what people can accomplish if they put their minds to it.

I think an unanchored boat center is also interesting because there may be more autonomy and sense of community. Plus there would be boat taxes instead of land taxes (less in most places). Insurance could be an issue, but perhaps these costs could be absorbed in a reasonable fee structure for hooking onto buoytown. Or maybe the businesses that provide supplies, fuel, water, etc. could support the thing by their profits - or both.

If it is unanchored then there needs to be a system for station keeping/sea anchoring.

 

International Sea Station

I see it now. A floating island midway between popular cruising grounds. When your halfway to nowhere and the ice and beer are gone, "Pull up to ISS and refresh and refill with US."

Take the concept of the floating oil rig and modularize the structure to create a larger habitable area. Surround it by "wave generators", generators powered by wave action that also calm to sea in the middle of the whole affair. Actually, make the whole colossus circular in shape with an entry that is alway on the lee side and now you've got a floating harbor.

Stock it with water makers, ice machines, maybe even brewery. A couple of restaurants and a hotel. The structure itself will attract marine wildlife that can be caught and sold (maybe exported). Of course, you'll have to import good ol' U.S.of A, Black Angus aged to perfection beef to be sold at $50 a lb.

Now there is an economically, floating paradise in the spirit of American capitalism.

Standing by for a lambasting.

 

No lambasting here. Exactly what I had in mind. (see underwater view of oceanarium below) My sea station is a toroid shape with a closable entrance, which creates a lake on the open ocean. It is powered by wave generators and solar/wind energy to maintain station with the help of GPS. The good thing about the toroid shape is that it can be manufactured in sections of narrow width in the same mold and assembled on the water. The sections can be connected by means of tensioned stainless cables. This idea that I have been putting together with others could easily be scaled down to be more like a simple marina concept (instead of cruiseship scale) which would make it much easier to build.

 

How big is a boat ?

 

Still a way to go with the 'wave generator' stuff, but yes I can see the feasability of the concept! But I still believe that to be viable the thing needs to be BIG. All those materials got to come from somewhere and be stowed somewhere we they do arrive, how do they arrive! If your small you'll have difficulty getting aircraft in (that's not economical anyway) and with certain weather conditions you'd be steaming around for weeks waiting for an offing, even if you could rotate the entrance!

Oh yes! and before you ask there ae some of us very familiar with the transfer of materials between ships/rigs at sea - it ain't easy or cheap! Either static (supply to rig style) or mobile - Navy RAS(a lot of em, some better than others - won't go into who's better - Bergaila, Bolton and I know the truth)!

 

Well then, you guys are the experts. How about some ideas for ship to ship transfers on open water. I guess you want to keep your distance so the vessels don't crash into each other and yet still have a connection that can transport floating containers. Maybe the containers are padded and transferred with some kind of a flexible conveyor line. Maybe the delivering ship dumps them over the stern all attached together like pearls on a string. How about a downhill ramp over the stern so that once a few were sliding down they would pull the rest with them? The RingShip retrieves the end of the line with a small craft and then hauls them in one by one with a big winch through a sea level opening in the hull that has a sealed upward ramp to prevent taking on water. Empties are returned the same way to the next delivery ship.

 

Fanciful but practical? If the 'island' is static (being an island and Gulliver not onboard, I would presume so!) why be so awkward! A simple crane lift the load off the aft deck of the boat to the 'deck' of the 'island' empty and return, fluids are pumped through hoses! The awkward bit is do you tie up (old style - stern too 'island'; or alongside like in a normal port?) or do you station keep using thrusters and all that modern technical stuff? Backing in and tieing up is the old way but you need space to drop an anchor with a fair bit of scope to keep the vessel square to the 'island'. Both are easy systems (with well trained masters, officers and crews) but can be dangerous in heavy weather - normal daily occurances at most oil rigs/platforms - just the style of ship? and fuel etc for the engines is/will get expensive! Guess it depends on the income of the 'island'. Trouble is this system ain't very 'green' which one presumes the 'island' would wish to remain as close to as possible?