Here’s a crazy idea! How about living on your own Off Grid Island? That moves! That’s what a cruise ship is, basically. Almost any ship with many cabins and lots of deck space can be converted into an off grid island of sorts. Imagine traveling the world stopping in countries around the globe, visiting exotic locations, seeing the wonder of the world, all from a mobile off grid island. That’s what a ship is. An island. And it’s possible to make it 100% self sufficient. Ships and technology exist today that produce their own water, power, and with a little creative thought and some hard work, (and money) a cruise ship is the perfect platform to create your own off grid community at sea. You could also survive the zombie apocalypse on board your own little off grid island. Just saying.
100% SELF SUFFICIENT OFF GRID ISLAND!
All completely powered by renewable solar and wind energy. The motors can be electric and the battery energy storage system can hold enough energy to power the motors, galley, suites, cabins, radar and electronic systems, and all the LED lighting on board. The ship would have to be converted and retrofitted with millions of dollars worth of equipment but it’s possible.
So how do you fund something like this? How much would it cost? Well, that depends on how much modification would need to be done to convert the ship. It would not be “cheap”. That’s for sure. But it’s doable if you can raise the funding for the project.
See, that’s the problem. It’s always about the funding. This is why most great ideas never get off the ground. Money!
The millions of dollars it would take to retrofit a cruise ship to be a 100% self sufficient off grid island is out of the reach of the individual. But when you factor in the power of crowd funding, it becomes much easier. Not “EASY”, but “easier”. More likely. Better odds.
There is power in numbers. Let’s say you need $10 million to purchase a used cruise ship. Then you have the cost of crew salaries, plus yearly maintenance, plus fuel, insurance, permits, licensing, equipment, labor, materials, port fees, etc. The list of expenses goes on and on and on. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
Look at a ship like this as its own country (more about maritime law in a bit; just keep reading).
Now think about military bases and more specifically, aircraft carriers.
Now that your mind is primed to think in these terms, think about what the term “off grid” means. What does off grid mean? Well, it’s simple. Off grid means being disconnected from the power grid. More broadly it means being self sufficient, sustainable, independent, completely autonomous.
See where I’m going with that line of thought and logic?
Now, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier is 100% self sufficient right? Kind of…
It’s not. It needs food for the crew. Without food the crew of thousands of sailors would starve. There’s no way to run the boat without food. So…they load the ship with enough food for months at sea. They are resupplied with food every so often and continue to be resupplied. It’s not self sufficient because it requires food from an outside source.
All other necessities of life are provided on board the aircraft carrier. Shelter, water, energy. Even healthcare and education is provided. WiFi, etc.
Food
They rely on an outside source for food. That’s a weak point. Though the ship does have a food supply chain, the crew is dependent on that chain not being broken. They must resupply every few weeks/months depending on mission. Water is provided through desalination filtration. Energy is provided by a nuclear reactor. Shelter is provided by the ship itself. The only thing missing to allow the crew to survive indefinitely at sea is food.
They have no self sufficient food system on board. They don’t grow their own food.
What if you could? You can. And here’s how.
Modifying a cruise ship to produce food for the crew and passengers would be priority. Convert some interior and exterior decks into grow space for vertical aquaponic gardens. Root based crops would need soil, and this is possible with “potato towers” (look it up) built vertically and converted to grow any root crop. VErtical growing makes sense. Aquaponics and hydroponics with aeroponics, all lit with UV LED light and natural sunlight.
WATER
Desalination and solar stills.
ENERGY
Solar and wind with battery backup energy storage. Energy on a typical cruise ship comes from one source. Diesel engine/generators. It’s powered by diesel. Even more modern electric motor driven cruise ships have big diesel generators. This is NOT RENEWABLE nor is it self sufficient. The ship must be refueled often and this increases the operational cost.
What if there was a way to completely eliminate the energy cost by switching to renewable energy? There is.
SOLAR & WIND ENERGY
A HUGE battery energy storage system (fuel tank; purchased at wholesale). Thousands of solar panels (purchased at wholesale). Hundreds of small wind turbines (basically a wind farm of small vertical turbines; also purchased at wholesale) install all over the outer edges of the ship and on the roof.
Propulsion
Giant electric motors would have to be purchased at retail, or if the ship is already equipped with electric motors this would save millions of dollars in retrofitting. Retro fitting a ship with electric motors might be cost prohibitive IF you wanted to make a profit. But…
If your purpose is to build an off grid island community, then it becomes a bit easier. If your purpose is to build a community of people that want to live off grid and travel the world, then you can do it this way.
Crowdfunding is a powerful funding mechanism. It’s a great way to raise funds for projects large and small. Basically crowdfunding works like this.
A bunch of people get together and combine their resources to purchase or build a project. Simple.
DISPUTES
Disputes arise, so you’d have to have an ironclad legal membership agreement but it’s possible to mitigate disputes and screen members so that you have like minded people on board to decrease the odds of a dispute.
MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT, SHIPS CHARTER
Everyone would have to agree that all members are equal in their membership privileges. A minimum buy in would have to be agreed upon. And no one regardless of their contribution would be treated differently or held in higher regard than any other person. As long as the minimum requirement is met, all persons/members would be EQUAL under the bylaws of the legal membership agreement that all members would sign before being allowed on the vessel.
Now, this of course does not completely eliminate the possibility of conflict and disputes. But it minimizes the odds that these disputes will happen. They will happen, and using statistical data you can predict with a high accuracy the likelihood of any kind of conflict happening. Simple risk mitigation and analysis.
The purpose of the bylaws and the membership agreement that has a set of rules and code of conduct while aboard the vessel is to reduce the chance of a disagreement, dispute, or conflict. Again, you can’t completely eliminate it, but you can reduce it to an acceptable level that will provide everyone on board with a peaceful living and working environment
All members would be given equal rights under the charter/bylaws of the corporation.
It would have to be a corporation protected under its own charter. A set of rules and procedures that everyone agrees to. Moving on.
Now for the funding.
FUNDING
So how do you raise the tens of millions of dollars it would take to purchase the cruise ship, retro fit it, pay the crew, maintenance costs, operation costs, and expenses that are involved. Insurance alone is a huge ongoing expense.
The idea is to remove as many ongoing costs as possible. THe best way to do this is to train members as crew.
Every member aboard our little off grid island vessel is part of the crew.
Cross-training all members in the operations of the vessel mitigates the possibility of losing a member of the crew that specializes in a certain area of maintenance or operations.
Do ALL members have to know how to change a breaker in the electrical panel? No. But if you have at least 10-20 people who are cross trained then you will likely always have someone aboard at all times who can fix anything that breaks.
Logistics of getting replacement parts and equipment when equipment breaks down. Because it will break down. Maintenance costs are mitigated when you have people on board who are experts in their field.
Any possible problem that could arise needs redundancy systems and maintenance personnel in place. Electricians would be in high demand. As would welders and plumbers/pipefitters. Carpenters and other tradesmen and apprentices would be needed.
Cruise ships have crews ranging in size from a few tens of crew members to hundreds of crew members.
A modern cruise ship can carry up to 1500 passengers or more. That’s a lot of people to take care of. You have food service, housekeeping, healthcare, entertainment, bartenders, and maintenance, pool technicians, electricians, plumbers, welders, etc.
Then you have the captain of the vessel. First mate, and deck crew. Many different levels of crew and maintenance personnel.
The funding for all of this is done through crowdfunding, and you would have to be very creative in how the money is managed and spent on expenses in the conversion process.
Requirements for getting on board in the initial build phase of the project would have to be open to larger sums of membership right? Wrong. There’s a way to do this and make it affordable for those who want to join. As long as they agree to the terms of the membership agreement.
Let’s say that the ship costs $10 million. The conversion will cost about $10 million. That’s $20 million dollars! That’s a huge sum of money to raise just to convert a ship to become an off grid island. But it’s possible.
Remember I said that these ships can carry up to 1500 passengers? There’s your membership base right there. And since members are also crew members, cross-trained in the most needed areas you’re guaranteed to be able to solve almost any problem that arises at sea.
Say you have just 1000 members. (we’re saving the other 500 cabins for another purpose which I’ll reveal in a moment).
With 1000 members the entry fee to raise the funding would be $10000. That’s $10 million dollars right there. That pays for the ship.
Well, where does the other $10 million come from? Easy. Memberships!
It’s $10000/year!
WAIT! Stop! If everyone is living on board, how are you going to generate operational capital for maintenance and operations? Good question.
Remember those other 500 cabins? That’s how!
Think AirBNB at Sea!
That’s NOT the only way to generate ongoing revenue for operating capital to run the boat.
The boat will have multiple revenue streams. Multiple streams of income produces ongoing operating capital for salaries and maintenance.
Some revenue streams would be from guests/passengers:
- Cabin rentals
- Food sales
- Drinks
- Etc.
EXPORT
The ship can also export! Yeah, we can grow, catch seafood, and manufacture products on board the vessel. There’s nothing saying we couldn’t even have a small fishing fleet! I know it’s a crazy idea. But hear me out. The “fleet” would consist of charter fishing boats (which are easily portable on board a large ship). I don’t kow
FISHING & SEAFOOD
Fishing isn’t just a way to feed everyone on board, it’s also an income stream both with fishing charters and seafood export. But what about laws?
Yeah, this would pose complications, but it’s possible. Maritime law is different from any other law. It’s more free, less restrictive than land based law. There are certain freedoms you have on the open ocean than you do on land. In short it’s more FREE out on the open ocean.
Guests would pay for the cabin rentals just like on a regular cruise ship. PLus food and drinks.
Seafood exports can be a nice source of income. Manufacturing of products. Converting some of the ship’s cabins or deck space to small manufacturing facilities would be a great way to increase revenue.
SALT!
SALT! The ocean is full of salt. The production of salt could be a large revenue stream for the ship and it’s members. You’d have all the energy you would need to extract the salt from the ocean. New technologies and renewable energy makes it possible.
I’m sure you can think of hundreds of products that can be produced on board the ship. All you need is space and energy. Materials can be purchased and shipped direct to the ship. Ideally you’d want to use the ocean to provide you with the materials, so there are limitations there.
Services! The ship will have the ability to work autonomously and independently from any country. It can manage its own economy. It can produce its own products. It can offer services online.
COMMUNICATIONS
Satellite internet. High speed satellite internet is a thing now. It’s one of the fastest growing industries in the world right now. It’s getting cheaper and the speeds are getting faster. It’s possible to have internet almost anywhere in the world now. No more need for wires.
Using this technology for providing services worldwide. Financial services. Customer service. Any service that can be provided via electronic means can be provided by members from the ship to anywhere in the world.
The possibilities here are limitless. Especially in the financial sector, ecommerce, even online blogging, news websites, Youtube alone can rake in MILLIONS of dollars annually by just ONE person.
There are literally hundreds of remote jobs available. And with a rotating crew/membership platform, it’s possible all members can be trained in a valuable needed vocation. Education is provided!
Imagine this.
EVERYTHING PROVIDED
Housing, food, utilities, healthcare and education including jobs all provided from on board a mobile off grid island! Everything is provided. Multiple recurring revenue streams. Operational capital. Maintenance costs. Jobs and salaries. Shelter, food, water, energy. All provided in a single system. Off grid. On the ocean. That’s independence. That’s viable.
1000 members/crew, produces $10 million in annual revenue. (not counting any other source of income)
500 cabins rented to guests produces about $150 per night (actually $161 plus on board spending of about $60 SOURCE: Cruisemarketwatch.com) Figure 50% vacancy rate hospitality (industry average) and you’re looking at about $19,162,500.00 in revenue annually with 365 days of cruise time) But that’s only if you want guests and you’re not drydocked. So cut that number in half, $10 million. That’s $20 million in revenue per year from members and guests alone, not counting the products and services offered from members and exported from the ship to other countries. Maintenance and operational costs are covered. Expenses are reduced because members are also the crew.
Maritime law is more free and independent of land law. Home base country? You can register your vessel in a country that’s friendly to financial services and which has lower taxes.
OR…if you’re willing to file all the paperwork, you could become your own country!
SEASTEADING
It’s called seasteading. Seasteading is like homesteading but at sea on the ocean and funded by member/citizens. Yes there will be legal hurdles to overcome, but this is why you pick your members/crew carefully. Each member citizen will bring with them valuable skills and knowledge and will agree to share that knowledge and skill to teach others in their field of expertise.
EXPERTISE IN ALL FIELDS! ALL EQUALLY SHARED WITH ALL MEMBERS!
Engineers, architects, lawyers, doctors, nurses, electricians, mechanics, restaurateurs, chefs, farmers, gardeners, financial consultants, accountants, plumbers/pipefitters, carpenters, welders, teachers, programmers, software engineers, IT professionals, construction workers, laborers, everyone equal under the ship’s charter and the corporation’s bylaws/rules and membership agreement.
(all trained in different fields offering their services as part of the membership agreement almost completely eliminates the expenses the ship would normally pay. The cost is reduced massively, and allows for that money to be reinvested in the conversion and operation and maintenance of the vessel to provide a completely autonomous and independent 100% self sufficient off grid resort of sorts.)
ALL members supply their services, knowledge and skills to everyone on board as part of their membership agreement.
Everyone works together. Everyone works toward a common goal. Everyone pulls their own weight. If someone needs help, they are helped. No one goes without what they need to live a happy fulfilling life.
100% self sufficiency. Freedom and independence.
That’s truly off grid.
That’s what off grid living is all about.
***
References:
Seasteading – Wikipedia
There’s a lot more to this, and this article does sugar-coat some of the problems involved with this. But it mitigates the possibility of conflict sufficiently enough to minimize the odds of there being a dispute or legal issue that might arise while trying to build and operate something like this. Yeah, it’s a utopian idea, and a utopia is probably not possible. However, I believe we can get close enough to it to be able to make it work and create a peaceful fulfilling happy life for those on board.