[EDIT: A few more details from Chad Elwartowski here:
https://vivavivas.com/2020/12/19/ms-satoshis-journey-coming-to-an-end/ ]
Although I'm sad about the losses that Ocean Builder's investors will suffer from making the attempt, I think failure to get insurance was a blessing in disguise. The ship was a huge pivot from their original business plan. It would've been a highly visible project, run by a crew of people who had no previous experience running a cruise ship or managing a community of that size--the risk of debacle was high.
I'm happy to hear that they'll return to their original plan to build affordable single family seasteads. I think that's the right scale for seasteading right now. Starting small will allow them to build up their management chops gradually over time. And the scale of problems to solve will be much smaller and arrive over a much more relaxed time frame.
-----
[Letter from Grant Romundt sent today to Ocean Builders supporters]
SAD NEWS: Satoshi’s Final Voyage
Something we didn't consider would be a deal-breaker for the Satoshi Crypto Cruise Ship has turned into a deal-breaker.
No Protection and Indemnity insurance company will insure the Satoshi. All options have been exhausted.
It was easy to get insurance to cover the voyage from where it was parked in the Mediterranean to Panama but assuming it would be easy get insurance to use the ship as a stationary residential cruise ship was incorrect.
The ship cannot be insured, which means it cannot legally have a crew, which means the ship would lose its class rating and flag and any possibility of running any of the onboard businesses.
It is with great sadness that I have to report that what we thought was going to be the beginning of the Satoshi Crypto Cruise ships adventure sailing across the ocean to Panama to start its new life is actually going to be its final voyage. Once the Satoshi reaches Panama next week, she will be refueled & resupplied and then sent to a scrap yard in India. The paperwork was signed late last night to sell it for scrap.
We are very disappointed. I know we are not the only one's who are disappointed. We have tens of thousands of people around the world waiting and watching to see what kind of community the Satoshi Crypto Cruise ship could become.
The idea behind the Satoshi was to be a place in the world where we can experiment, build, and test innovative blockchain solutions in all areas of life and business. Unfortunately, we will not be able to proceed because of archaic big insurance companies that cannot adapt to innovative new ideas.
We had plans to convert cruise ships into environmentally friendly homes and marine-restoration zones but instead we have to send the ship to the scrap yard to waste with hundreds of other perfectly good ships that are being scrapped because COVID has destroyed the cruise industry to the point that it makes more sense to essentially throw a ship in the garbage than to find a new use for it. The world is too slow to adapt to new ideas like ours on how to put ships to new uses.
This is not the news we thought we would be sending out. What I can tell you is that we are now focusing our full attention on how to speed up production our SeaPods. We are making fantastic progress on SeaPod production which we will continue to update you on.
We are processing refunds for everyone that purchased cabins over the coming days.
Sincerely,
Grant Romundt
CEO, Ocean Builders
https://vivavivas.com/2020/12/19/ms-satoshis-journey-coming-to-an-end/ ]
Although I'm sad about the losses that Ocean Builder's investors will suffer from making the attempt, I think failure to get insurance was a blessing in disguise. The ship was a huge pivot from their original business plan. It would've been a highly visible project, run by a crew of people who had no previous experience running a cruise ship or managing a community of that size--the risk of debacle was high.
I'm happy to hear that they'll return to their original plan to build affordable single family seasteads. I think that's the right scale for seasteading right now. Starting small will allow them to build up their management chops gradually over time. And the scale of problems to solve will be much smaller and arrive over a much more relaxed time frame.
-----
[Letter from Grant Romundt sent today to Ocean Builders supporters]
SAD NEWS: Satoshi’s Final Voyage
Something we didn't consider would be a deal-breaker for the Satoshi Crypto Cruise Ship has turned into a deal-breaker.
No Protection and Indemnity insurance company will insure the Satoshi. All options have been exhausted.
It was easy to get insurance to cover the voyage from where it was parked in the Mediterranean to Panama but assuming it would be easy get insurance to use the ship as a stationary residential cruise ship was incorrect.
The ship cannot be insured, which means it cannot legally have a crew, which means the ship would lose its class rating and flag and any possibility of running any of the onboard businesses.
It is with great sadness that I have to report that what we thought was going to be the beginning of the Satoshi Crypto Cruise ships adventure sailing across the ocean to Panama to start its new life is actually going to be its final voyage. Once the Satoshi reaches Panama next week, she will be refueled & resupplied and then sent to a scrap yard in India. The paperwork was signed late last night to sell it for scrap.
We are very disappointed. I know we are not the only one's who are disappointed. We have tens of thousands of people around the world waiting and watching to see what kind of community the Satoshi Crypto Cruise ship could become.
The idea behind the Satoshi was to be a place in the world where we can experiment, build, and test innovative blockchain solutions in all areas of life and business. Unfortunately, we will not be able to proceed because of archaic big insurance companies that cannot adapt to innovative new ideas.
We had plans to convert cruise ships into environmentally friendly homes and marine-restoration zones but instead we have to send the ship to the scrap yard to waste with hundreds of other perfectly good ships that are being scrapped because COVID has destroyed the cruise industry to the point that it makes more sense to essentially throw a ship in the garbage than to find a new use for it. The world is too slow to adapt to new ideas like ours on how to put ships to new uses.
This is not the news we thought we would be sending out. What I can tell you is that we are now focusing our full attention on how to speed up production our SeaPods. We are making fantastic progress on SeaPod production which we will continue to update you on.
We are processing refunds for everyone that purchased cabins over the coming days.
Sincerely,
Grant Romundt
CEO, Ocean Builders