Has Anyone Thought of Creating a Protected Marina in the Ocean?

[Island Time O25]

With many Pacific islands nations supposedly getting swamped by the rising ocean levels and ready to abandon their islands one would assume that these now or soon to be semi/fully submerged little atolls can be purchased relatively cheaply and much more easily converted to platforms for living and berthing accommodations than purely man made ones from the scratch. May be that's the direction the OP should be thinking about. They're far enough from the continents to be be the true "getaways from it all" yet with some regular seaplane service can be close enough to the big land/other islands if needed. Some (many?) are even outside the typhoon zone, an added bonus.

And since lately those Pacific islands tiny nations have been selling everything but the kitchen sink to the Chinese anyway why not give them an alternative buyer? Also as an added bonus since those mini-nations are technically sovereign this sovereignty can be passed on to the new owners and this will solve many of the issues raised by the "platform from the scratch" proposals. I'm sure that just buying those islands outright will be much more cheaper than engineering and maintaining a platform of equivalent size from scratch.

[sailingfarmer]

How about midway...Atlantic Ocean below the northern weather spirals? nice resting place on your way across the pond? Sure to have good French wine stored there... ferro-cement structure comes to mind... out of hurricane alley

[TrentePieds]

Quote: "Dreams proceed reality..."

Typo? Malappropism? Faulty syntax checker? Or our key to understanding such glorious ability to "think outside the box"?

TrentePieds

[seasick]

Giant structure in the middle of the ocean where everyone and anyone may find solitude in their own space and yet have the option to join others at any number of great bars and restaurants, complete with wave/swell attenuating properties, pools, discos, weight rooms, salons, theaters, classes, shops, hmmm, sounds like a cruise ship, only the cruise ship actually goes somewhere.

[sailingfarmer]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: "Dreams proceed reality..."

Typo? Malappropism? Faulty syntax checker? Or our key to understanding such glorious ability to "think outside the box"?

TrentePieds

Trente Pieds...

Since you are obviously an honored Auxiliary Member of the Spelling Police.... let me correct that error and proceed to spell "precede" for you

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by seasick

Giant structure in the middle of the ocean where everyone and anyone may find solitude in their own space and yet have the option to join others at any number of great bars and restaurants, complete with wave/swell attenuating properties, pools, discos, weight rooms, salons, theaters, classes, shops, hmmm, sounds like a cruise ship, only the cruise ship actually goes somewhere.

I believe OP's main argument for such a man made structure is extra territoriality it would confer, which no cruise ship has to my knowledge. But as stated earlier, most nations would be up in arms about such community, especially if it is built by and for the benefit of "free spirits". Look at GB fighting that Sealand guy all those years even though their own courts have upheld his right to be there under the then existing laws. IMO they were harassing him more as an example to others similarly minded than for any other purpose.

[peterbeale]

Check out the out breakwater of Monte Carlo harbor. It is floating,.

[seasick]

In the mid 70s I sailed well out of my way to rescue a castaway who had been abandoned to live alone for nine months on Palmyra Atoll. The castaway, "Happy All Lonely" Hal was a member of a well funded group that called themselves the Valley Foundation whose "constitution" stated that every man's virtue was based on their productivity. Their mission was to start a new country and to this end, they bought an unseaworthy research vessel from the University of Hawaii and a DC 3 and set out to find their new country. Palmyra with its aging WWII structures was high on their list. They found caches of arms there to defend their new homeland.

International law of the day stated that to be claimable, a body of land had to be above the mean high tide line. These intrepid colonizers set about piling up coral on a reef to the west of Tonga on which they set a plaque claiming the reef in the name of the Valley Foundation.

The good king of Tonga was not pleased. He got the US State Department on the horn as these folk's vessel was flying a US flag. The state department ordered these folks to Honolulu ASAP or face a life behind bars. They boogied back to Hawaii, leaving their buddy Hal on Palmyra to his own devises. For my good deed of rescuing him, I was rewarded with a thirty day sail in the close proximity of a person who I quickly came to realize was left behind for good reason.

I guess if I had a point it would be, that as the population increases and the oceans supposedly rise, demand for land will also increase. Colonizing a man made water world may be one option but personally I believe that we have a more symbiotic relationship with our planet. As our numbers increase the caps melt and voila! We have a new continent (Antarctica) on one end and a new ocean on the other, just waiting for us to exploit.

[Kenomac]

Like I suggested earlier, cruise ships inhabited by 5000 people already exist, and they're much more luxurious, all inclusive and a far better idea than your waterworld surrounded by a bunch of floating crap out in the middle of nowhere. Good luck selling your idea.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Stumble

Seriously?

As an engineering problem it is solvable, but economically there's no way.

Economically, it needs to produce something of value sufficient to pay for itself.

One possibility:

Ocean thermal energy conversion

Energy Island: unlocking the potential of the ocean as a renewable power source

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by sailingfarmer

Where are you going to pull up anchor and find a place all to yourselves once the pop;nation doubles... I am meerly looking ahead... with 3/4's of the planet's surface covered in water... the ocean is the last refuge... I can imagine at the present increase in population that your favorite hideaway will one day look like Santa Barbara marina. ...and talk about expensive?

Travel outside your crowded city someday and obtain a clue. There's plenty of open space. If you took all the people in the world and placed them in close proximity, they could live in a space the size of Texas.

[Hydra]

It' theoretically possible to tap into the thermal energy of the oceans (in the areas where there is a significant difference of temperature between the surface and the deeper layers). You just have to make a 1000m /3300' high pipe, hanging under the powerplant, for pumping the water. Until now, it hasn't been done reliably.

Alain

[sartorst]

While the idea sounds cool the economic reality just does not add up there are so many things that have to be researched you cant just decide to jack up a rig anywhere the seabed may not support it I personally know of rigs falling over with many $$ of research and millions are spent on maintenance! We just cant have these things floating around because someone went broke

[TraderJoe]

DREAMING
...dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives...William Dement

...when on the high seas, the main thoughts/objectives are usually...SAFE PORTS...

Even on the Great Lakes, one calm day today doesn't mean calm tomorrow!
Get us to land fall!
Just saying!
Keep sailing

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Jdege

Economically, it needs to produce something of value sufficient to pay for itself.

One possibility:

Ocean thermal energy conversion

Energy Island: unlocking the potential of the ocean as a renewable power source

Even assuming you could build one of these power plants, that as of yet have never even gotten close to economically viable. How in gods name are you going to bring that power from the middle of the Atlantic back to shore to sell?

Now you might, and it would be a long shot, but I could envision this working somehow. Be able to convince me that laying an underwater power cable across the Atlantic so that America and Europe could interview their grid would have some economic value, and that value could be realized by this thing... But it would probably better be served by a dedicated line and let this goofy idea sink next to it.