ShipStead

The Cruise Ship Seastead is one of the types of Seastead. The key idea is that by purchasing an existing ship we could eliminates R&D costs and the uncertainty about the costs and capabilities of the structure. This could make getting started easier.

Arguments In Favor

1. Ships are known to work fairly well on the ocean. They're somewhat survivable in large storms. They're relatively mobile, and that mobility can help avoid storms, visit more ports / countries, etc.
2. You can buy used cruise ships for reasonable amounts of money.
3. These could then be sold off as condos at reasonable prices.
4. This could be a lower risk way to get an ocean safe seastead going.

See also Patri's ShipStead project page.

1. Jeff Chan prefers the term "CondoStead" since a condo/timeshare is a familiar concept, easier to sell and explain, etc.

Essentially this idea is like Residensea / The World, but at a lower cost and with hopefully better economic structures.

Arguments Against

Ships are not as radically different as a spar buoy, and possibly not as comfortable in large waves. Spars have much lower waterplane area than most ship types, though SWATH come close. Ships may cost more to build and operate than a series-production spar structure. It's not easy to raft or join ships together to form larger communities, though the same could be said for spar structures (or any vessels on the ocean).