Ephemerisle2009

Intro

Welcome to Ephemerisle! The first-ever floating festival of politics, community and art will be held October 2-4, 2009 in the Sacramento Bay Delta, exact location TBA, but most likely the lagoon inside Headreach Island. Participants will bring their crafts and their ideas to build an eclectic temporary village of boats, rafts, barges, junks, and other floating structures.

Official Information

Official information lives on ephemerisle.org, such as:

• Registration
• FAQ
• Art & Activities
• Rules & Ethics
• Boats & Platforms Info
• Survival Guide

This wiki page is for community coordination. We've seeded it with some content, but feel free to use it for whatever you'd like!

Attendance

Post your info here! Ideas: Name, random facts about you, any cool stuff you will bring, your vessel, what you are most excited about.

Attendee List

• Patri Friedman, will bring my ocean art collection, and pirate pyramid. I am most excited about Ephemerisle as an incremental step (meaningful in size but also achievable) towards seasteading.
• James Hogan
• Greg Gioia will bring food, bands, port-a-potties, and other festival essentials.
• Eric Jacobus, stuntman extraordinaire! Might do some flips.
• Cheryl Cline
• Natalie Villalobos
• Chicken John, former San Francisco mayoral candidate and Camp Tipsy Tipster Supreme, will bring thousands of square feet of central platform.
• Ben Lavender, random seasteader
• Jeff Chan
• Brian Lindsay
• Lasse Birk Olesen
• Saikat Chakrabarti
• Divia Melwani
• Paul Grasshoff
• Trea Kines
• Kipp McMichael
• Danielle Strachman
• Brendan Connelly, trekking from Wisconsin; while giant cheesehead platform would be ideal, may shoot for that next time. ;)
• Zoe Miller
• Peter Neiger Flying in from DC

Rideshares

Suggested format (feel free to change this):

• NEED (vs. OFFER)
• Who: Sharky The Shark.
• When: Friday afternoon.
• Gear: Just my sharp teeth, and some hot sauce that goes well with human flesh...mmm...
• Offering: You will be spared my bloody rampage.

Rideshare List

• None yet.

Boatshare

This is for boat sharing, ie renting a large houseboat together. Note whether you have a boat reserved, how large a boat, what type of group you are looking for ("Other single moms bringing their children to experience the magic of water-based political self-expression!", "we're young, we're gay, and we are here to play!", "Tortured artistic souls only, ready to writhe in the agony of intense creative expression and conflict").

Boatshare List

• Lasse Birk Olesen Looking for people to share a boat/another floating structure with. Preferably someone who won't mind some late-night partying. E-mail me

Houseboat Info

Here are scans of some of the houseboat info the provided by the rentors at Paradide Point Marina. Things like the "Suggested items to bring" may be useful for planning, particularly if you're going to be using one of their houseboats.

Boats & Platforms

Building

Share your ideas and resources about how to construct floating platforms cheaply, easily, and with sheer joyful madness and exuberance! Note that there is an Ephemerisle Grant Program to subsidize particularly fun, interesting, or creative platforms.

Ideas

Greg has a post about Boat Building 101 on the Ephemerisle blog: http://ephemerisle.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/boat-building-101/

Links

• There is a SFSeasteadersSailingClub mailing list.
• If you need access to tools and machines, TechShop is a great resource.
• The NIMBY artist space in Oakland is a good place to build things. The Ephemerisle Staff are tentatively planning to have a series of work days there (probably on Saturdays), where people can build their own platforms, help build the central platform, and get advice and assistance from the President of Platforms, Chicken John.
• Thomas Yost has a lot of information regarding kayak construction, including inflatables, on his website.YostWerks

Buying

Greg has a post about water camping on the cheap on the Ephemerisle blog: http://ephemerisle.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/water-camping-on-the-cheap/

An inflatable whitewater raft or life rafter makes fine private space.

Used boats can be found on Craigslist, prices are extremely low right now due to the recession.

A Paddleboat would be fun for getting around. New they are $300 -$1000, but they regularly come up for sale on Craigslist and eBay. For example, August 17th, PEDAL BOAT - $100 (fremont / union city / newark) - someone should buy this!

Inflatable Platforms

Many websites sell inflatable pool and lake toys, like http://www.inflatabletrampolines.com/. Here are some examples:

• Four-person inflatable boat for just $34 at Walmart, good for sleeping in (has sides), although not sure what the inflated dimensions are.
• This inflatable structure provides shelter, looks comfy to sleep in, and could accomodate multiple sleepers.
• 5' x 6.5' for $30
• Coleman Party Island Float 9' diameter, seats 8 people, holds 2000lbs for $60, hole in the middle, but could easily be covered up.

What to Bring

Yourself, a good attitude, sunscreen, ideas about politics, seastead structure ideas, seastead models, seastead prototypes, ...

See the Seasteading wiki for a discussion of Personal Safety Equipment.

Art & Activities

Art & Activity Previews

Give people a preview of the art you are planning to bring, activities you will host, classes you could teach...

Art & Activity Ideas

Big Group Activity

It would be neat to have a big group activity/spectacle, like the Burning of the Man. Add your ideas here: EphemerisleGroupActivity

Water Craft / Transport

• Floating framework with a porch swing
• Shoes to Walk On Water - make your own, even High-School kids can do it!
  • U San Diego annual competition
  • Competition in the UK
  • award-winning Iranian invention
• Stilt paddleboat. Cross between a paddleboat and a super-tall unicycle. Sit way up high, pedal, it turns a paddle on the water. Base is a triangle or rectangle with flotation (plastic barrels or whatever) at the corners. Or just convert an actual plastic paddleboat.
• Make your own paddleboat: A guy in China did it for $20 in materials.
• Water Unicycle (scroll down to #26).
• Build your own human-powered hydrofoil!

Entertainment/Performance

• Write a song, 5-minute play, or standup comedy routine about living on the water / seasteading / ephemerisle.

Seastead Model Contest Next Year?

In future Ephemerisles it could be good to have an Ephemerisle Contest between seastead models. These models would be large enough to play on, like WaterWalker2. There might be constraints like requiring that the model can be transported by a single pickup truck. Prizes might be in the $500 to $2,000 range. If the location does not have waves, speedboat wakes can be used to test models.