Recent content by KarlH

The seastead wasn't self-sufficient, and the inhabitants were commuting to shore in a sailboat with an inboard. They were definitely not independent of Thailand in practical terms, but at the same time they likely paid Thai sales taxes while not relying on Thai police protection (for whatever...

This is sort of true: "Hunting us down to our death is just plain stupid and highlights exactly the reason someone would be willing to go out in middle of the ocean to get away from governments." On the other hand, if Thailand claims 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, and he claims to be...

@Angélique, thanks for the information about spar rigs. I've been interested in small waterplane designs, but the ones I was familiar with had bulbous hulls or floats. That wastewater management system sounds pretty respectable. Even if people do follow the 'potty rules,' substances like...

A couple of interesting exceprts from the comment thread on that Reason article: Another poster claimed that Thailand asserts a contiguous zone extending 24 miles into the ocean.

I like the idea, but you might want to consider burning some of the waste and recovering the energy. Your Carnot efficiency will be higher than if you had gone the biogas route, and your methane emissions will be reduced relative to composting without collecting the gas. You also get...

Thailand decided to put the "finger" somewhere else: Thai Government Takes Over Seastead Near the Thai Coast https://reason.com/2019/04/15/thai-government-takes-over-seastead-near-the-thai-coast/

Ever since seasteading became a hot topic, I've wondered why the Israeli's don't do it... The cost of expanding through settlements is pretty high relative the quality of the land (no oil, poor weather for agriculture), and there are military costs on top of that. My Scandinavian ancestors...

Yeah, especially since it was made in Thailand. There's at least one Damien II for sale right now with a lower asking price. But maybe the $150k includes the towing and other expenses. The nice thing about the spar/buoy is that it could make a handy (and semi-protected) missile launch tube when...

It looks like someone played around with a more extreme variation: SWASH SMALL WATERPLANE AREA SINGLE HULLS http://www.bluebird-electric.net/SWASH_Small_Waterplane_Area_Single_Hull.htm The SWATH International design concept used a modestly-bulbous central hull to limit wetted area and typical...

SWATH International had some interesting design articles when they were still around. One area they covered was keeping the weight of the superstructure under control, since SWATH needs wider beam to avoid being mushy in the roll axis. The superstructure also tends to be higher above the...

Yes, pity those suckers ;)

Thanks for the excellent post, dsigned. A while back I spoke with a guy who built several ferro-cement boats, and he mentioned some interesting things about the mix: - There was an additive to keep it from reacting with the zinc galvanization on the rebar and hardware cloth reinforcements. -...

Same reason Greenland isn't called Glacierland. Have you ever tried attracting colonists to a planet when they know that they'll need to build the equivalent of Sealaunch just to get back off of it?

Already claimed. It's MINE.

Thanks :) That makes a lot more sense, especially given the location. The only other thing that I had been able to think of was a helicopter carrier, but all of them have a typical flattop superstructure.