Liftboat pleasure craft?

Liftboats are [self-propelled, self-elevating vessels with a relatively large open deck capable of carrying equipment and supplies in support of various offshore mineral exploration and production or offshore construction activities.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liftboat

Is anyone aware of a boat with a liftboat form factor being used as a yacht equivalent?

 

Nice story, Doug Lord, but crasch is talking about a liftboat.
In principle, a liftboat seems too complicated to be used as a houseboat (or pleasure craft). Or it will stay anchored to the ground and elevated above the sea?.

 

My apologies-I'll delete it-very careless- I read "LIFEBOAT"...

 

You could pimp it doug and have the first foiling lift boat.

 

Yes, it happened to me the same thing the first time I read the initial post. I wonder if the same thing happened to crasch.

 

Retractable, maybe solar powered pods on the lifts?

 

TANSL, yes I was asking about liftboats not lifeboats.

What I have in mind is a pipe-legged liftboat with a pontoons on each leg. In travel mode, the boat would move like a catamaran. Upon reaching its destination, the pontoons / legs would fill with water, and the legs would extend. In shallow water, the pontoons might rest on the ocean floor. In deep water, each leg, once lowered, would stabilize the boat like the water filled portion of a flip ship:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP_FLIP



In theory, it seems to me such a ship should be resistant to very heavy, high waves. Imagine something like the combifloat:




http://www.combifloat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=63

But with pontoons at the bottom of the legs

 

The practicality of a pleasure lift boat, just doesn't make a lot of economic sense. The cost of such a system in itself, will instantly discount it's use, particularly once you do the math for the loads involved, with a reliable lift system. Placing pontoons on the bottom of the legs, will just cause untold (huge) engineering issues, not to mention the implications of stability during deployment and recovery.

 

crasch, you are mixing two types of floating equipment that have nothing to do with each other (the two vessels appearing in your pictures). But in both cases, when the legs artifact rest on the ground also have to anchor them to the bottom so they do not move. No withstand the waves if they are not anchored. Once anchored, it is not easy to let them go. Have you thought about how to do that if every 5 or 10 days you will change position ?.
I think, but it's just my opinion, you should think about your idea with a little more depth.
No doubt you've seen artifacts and you liked. But are not new, many, many years that were invented and nobody could give them an application other than that for which they were designed.
But imagination is free. The hard part is not to imagine, but imagine useful things.
Hapy new year.

 

It depends on the conditions. They are also called spud barges. One of the tug companies in town has a barge converted into a tropical island. They move it around for parties. It has sand, a tiki bar, grass huts, multi-colored disco lights, bbq's, and really loud music.

 

Imagination is where it all starts.

It depends what application you are putting the Liftboat too.

In oil exploration you have to put it where the oil is, and have to contend with the waves.

But for a holiday resort where you would locate it in calmer waters it wouldn't be a problem.

Ships have been used as floating hotels during events such as the Olympic Games but, needs a port to tie up to. This concept could be used to tow , if it doesn't have its own power, and set up off a beach.

Also your holiday resort could follow the seasons.

And, I am surprised nobody is doing it.

Poida

 

PAR, TANSL, thanks for your feedback! I have not yet done an engineering / economic analysis of the idea. As you suggest, it may well prove to be too costly to be of use to anyone. At this point, I'm just trying to determine if it has been done yet. The sea is vast, and there's a good chance someone, somewhere has already tried a new idea.

Poida, thanks for your thoughts and encouragement. My motivation is to come up with a design for a single family seastead which offers better comfort, better wave resistance, more space, and better station keeping ability than existing boats, at a price that could be afforded by a family of average means (in the U.S.). Vince Cate lays out the design goals here:

https://web.archive.org/web/2010071...org/index.php/User:Vincecate/SeasteadingViews

 

FYI, I recently ran across the final design report for the successor to the FLIP ship, which may be of interest to some of you:

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/sites/scri..._attachment/2014/FinalReport_FLIP2_June14.pdf

 

Interesting study. Thanks for sharing.
Back to liftboat, have you thought of floating hotels ?. Two of them are being built right now in a shipyard in northwestern Spain for the oil company Pemex.

 

I have often thought a self propelled , self jacking Spud Barge ,, hover craft would be the ideal inshore cruiser.

No need for charts , the hovercraft portion has no problem with sand bars or small islands.

In FL where condo owners believe they OWN any water they van see (all the way to Europe) and demand no anchoring laws , the spuds would come into play.

2 black balls in the rigging show a grounded vessel, not an anchored one (the sheriff can call and have someone look it up).

Raised 4 or 5 ft even the Sport Fish wakes in the slow Manatee Zone wont be a bother.

An ideal cruiser!