HangingBallast

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Description

For single-spar designs which are gravitationally stable (C_g below C_b), rather than having the ballast at the bottom of the spar, we could hang it from the spar for additional leverage.

Detail

• This allows for much greater leverage of the ballast on the center of gravity, therefore allowing for less ballast and greater topside weight, without the additional cost of a long spar.
• Leads to stability issues when undeployed, however.
• It scares Patri that the seastead will be made unstable if ballast cables are severed.
•  ? Is this needed/useful for metacentrically-stable designs, such as multi-column?

In this picture, imagine much longer cords for the hanging buoyancy:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2313/2534491378_50db429f2c.jpg