Blog

A view from below the seastead

While there are many pictures of the seastead above water.

Here are a few pictures from down below the seastead.

Below we have the bottom of the spar with fish floating all around. The bottom four posts were put there in case we had a large amount of up and down motion. The plan was to put some steel dampeners to prevent such motion. Fortunately there is virtually zero up and down motion (only a small sidewards movement when the waves hit the spar).
The ear on the side was because the contractor initially thought we were going to attach the anchor lines to the bottom of the spar. The anchor lines were then added to the center of the spar.

Below is a view from the bottom looking up. As you can see, the fish have really taken to hanging out around the seastead. They love it. Previously we would visit the site to do some surveys of various things at that location and we hardly saw any fish out there. Now it like a fish sanctuary. We see dolphins and tuna around our seastead all the time.

We have future plans to create a coral garden growing all along the side of the spar, much like someone may have a garden in their back yard. Using coralcrete we can create an artificial reef that should thrive with sea life. Being stationary we do not need to worry about growth on the “outer hull”. It actually helps with some of the sideward motion due to fluid dynamics.

First seastead has been set up in international waters

On February 2nd after almost a month of preparation and waiting for ideal wave conditions, Ocean Builders has raised the world’s first seastead in international waters 12 nautical miles out from Phuket, Thailand.

Ocean Builders has built a spar design seastead over the past several months which consists of a large steel cylinder that sits vertically in the water with a fiberglass platform sitting atop the spar which acts as the living space. The spar was placed into the water on January 3rd and the platform placed in the water a week later in preparation for this event.

Now, with the first single family home built to remain floating in international waters, Ocean Builders has set a new path for those that wish to seek a new frontier by living on the sea permanently without the interference of legacy governments.

While this is merely a prototype to prove the concept, two brave souls have already moved into the seastead and will be documenting their journey through the Ocean Builders website, Youtube channel and Facebook page. Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet (Nadia/Bitcoin Girl Thailand) are the first seasteaders but they are anxious to have many new neighbors come and join them.

The next phase of the Ocean Builders plan is to make 20 more seasteads with an upgraded design which will include a deeper spar for even more stability and a living space which is not just a barebones prototype design but built around a quality living experience.

Those first 20 customers will get their seasteads almost at cost as a way of rewarding the pioneers willing to take a chance on something new. They will also be instrumental in setting the standards of seasteading governance and culture for those that come join them in the future.

To become one of the first seasteading pioneers and forge a new future with freedom loving individuals from around the world or just to get updates and information on what is going on go to https://ocean.builders and sign up.

The World’s First Seastead is in the Water

On January 9, 2019 the world’s first seastead is now in the water off the coast of Phuket, Thailand built by the company Ocean.Builders. The single family seastead, named XLII (pronounced “ixly”), is a spar design seastead where a small fiberglass platform sits atop a large steel spar.

The steel spar is 20 meters long and 2 meters in diameter at 14mm thickness. The bottom is ballasted with concrete and sand. The spar can be filled with water to lower it during calm weather and it can be pumped out to bring the height up so that the platform is positioned high above the waves. The seastead is able to withstand 5 meter waves but will be sitting in the Andeman Sea where the average wave height is half a meter.

The platform is the living space, sitting several meters above the water. It is a six meter wide octagon shape with two floors. The bottom floor with a kitchen, bathroom, eating area and bedroom. The top floor is an open deck area covered by a solar panel frame which will create electricity for the seastead. The plan is to sell these seasteads at a price lower than the average single family home.

The spar was placed into the water last week and now with the platform in the water the full seastead is ready to be towed out 12 nautical miles to international waters and combined in its final sitting location among the islands of the tropical Thailand waters.

Ocean.Builders is a small group of entrepenurial engineers that are tired of talking about seasteading and are determined to make this thing happen.

More information is coming and can be watched here at ocean.builders as well as Youtube and seasteadtalk.org.