Massive Ships 12-Miles Offshore to Provide Floating City for Entrepreneurial Start-Ups;

Townhall.com ^ | March 16, 2013 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

A company named Blueseed is a year away from offering entrepreneurs an inexpensive place, near Silicon Valley, in which to develop their products.

"Blueseed will station a ship 12 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco, in international waters. The location will allow startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or grow their company near Silicon Valley, without the need for a U.S. work visa. The ship will be converted into a coworking and co-living space, and will have high-speed Internet access and daily transportation to the mainland via ferry boat. So far, over 1000 entrepreneurs from 60+ countries expressed interest in living on the ship."

Here is a sampling of images from their page of Concept Vessels.







Who's Going to Blueseed?

Blueseed will be welcoming 1171 entrepreneurs from 368 startups in 66 countries.



Motivation Factor

Motivation for Coming to Blueseed	Not important	Somewhat important	Important	Very important	Critical
An alternative to having to get US work visas for myself or other company founders	25.80%	14.60%	16.80%	19.20%	23.60%
An alternative to having to get US work visas for my employees	27.70%	20.30%	21.20%	18.10%	12.60%
Streamlined legal and regulatory environment made with low overhead in mind	7.10%	11.00%	27.50%	29.10%	25.30%
Ease of finding talent	6.30%	14.30%	22.80%	29.70%	26.90%
Proximity to Silicon Valley's investors	3.30%	9.10%	19.80%	31.00%	36.80%
Living and working in an awesome startup- and technology- oriented space	0.30%	2.70%	10.40%	31.60%	54.90%
Coolness factor / fame / getting press	12.60%	15.40%	23.90%	22.30%	25.8

This is exceptionally cool stuff. Floating offshore hospitals and schools cannot be far off. I wish Blueseed well.

[Lancey Howard]

Wow, this is an excellent idea! Unfortunately, you KNOW the whore Democrat politicians are going to come up with a way to extort taxes, graft, bribes, “campaign loot”, etc. from these “start-ups” no matter how far out at sea they go.

[soycd]

I get the feeling these folks will not be allowing any illegal aliens to sneak on board and laws will be enforced.

[kingu]

Blueseed’s major stumbling block is the California Coastal Commission, which so far as I can tell, they haven't even begun bribing, err, I mean, speaking with. Also Blueseed appears to have yet purchased a single keel - no ferry, no platform, which really means, no project.

In digging through various forums, it appears they've started the process of examining options for mooring and microwave internet links, but it's at the stage which an individual might make inquiries, not a company seeking and implementing solutions for a project that is supposed to be in the water in a year.

The 12 NM limit will evade a whole lot of US paperwork and regulation, but it is still within the 200 NM limit of regulation regarding the environment, which means full authority of the Coastal Commission and US environmental, health and safety regulations. Beyond, in making a stationary structure (which is what a permanently moored ship would be under international law), at any moment the US government has full authority to nationalize the structure.

As for their future? The only way I see them meeting their goal of 1Q 2014 startup is through the immediate purchase of keels, an immediate start to the bribery, err, negotiations with the California Coastal Commission, and the purchase of an existing ferry company. Simply purchasing craft to act as ferries would be a foolish act, as obtaining permission to act as a large capacity commercial ferry in California is a nightmare. Only through the purchase of an existing company could they sidestep the two plus year obstacle course.

How to check up on Blueseed’s real progress? Simply watch the agenda of the California Coastal Commission. They'll need permission for an ocean going commercial ferry service, a generation permit for their power plants, submit and get approved their waste water plan, permission for installation of a permanent mooring station (like the commission just refused the US Navy), and permission for stationing a permanent structure in California coastal waters.

This for a commission which has constantly refused to approve any living accommodation offshore, conversion of cargo ships and cruise ships into apartment rentals, or the installation of virtually any permanent structure. Without extensive bribery, err, conversations on the topic, I don't see Blueseed ever getting into the water.

[Dawggie]

Wait until the toilets start backing up.

[PastorBooks]

I don’t think it will fly off the California coast for the reasons you point out. It may be more legally possible off the coast of another state, such as North Carolina... but then they would have hurricanes.

[Straight Vermonter]

While 12 miles offshore is in international waters they are 188 miles inside of the exclusive economic zone. The US would require them to pay all taxes and follow all regulations so what is the point?

[KarlInOhio]

I expect a near constant harrassment of the ship by the DEA, Coast Guard, DHS, EPA and a thousand other biting flies from the government looking deep into the laws, regulations and handwritten post-it notes.

And just imagine if they start doing surgery on it to avoid Obamacare.

[research99]

Earl Warren gained his fame by cracking down on gambling cruisers in the late 1930’s, which were situated just offshore of California for the same reasons proposed for this ship.

[ransomnote]

Well...I used to work on ships for months at a time. That graphic they show, for some unknown reason /s, shows the ship lying in flat, calm waters of a bay or nice little harbor. ‘Moored’ would not describe it well - perhaps ‘floored’ by rollers (big rolling pin type waves) out there. Oil platforms are far more stable. I hope ‘investors’ know what they are getting into. Have them try living on a ship ‘moored’ 12 miles out...

[Kaslin]

You couldn’t get me on a Carnival cruise ship

[wally_bert]

Don’t rule out subtle hints from dear leader(s) that at least one attack sub will be constantly around unless tribute is paid and if not ships will sink.

[Kirkwood]

Actually, I don’t think you get it. This is a floating office building that rents space outside of the US. The owner of the boat doesn’t own any of the businesses therein.

[Izzy Dunne]

Dat's a nice boat ya got dere.

Be a shame if sump'n was to happ'n to it...

[Mamzelle]

Who protects them from pirates?

[The Antiyuppie]

Gotta love how all those 20-somethings think that in the future, everyone will just sit in their underwear, push a few buttons on their computers, and get rich. You see this happen all the time on TV, when the reality of this is closer to the chances of becoming an NBA star.

This is the economic equivalent of everyone taking in everyone else’s laundry.

I really, really do like the idea of a floating, cut-rate hospital outside US waters, though. I’d invest in that!

[Racer1]

Folks, if you think this is good, you’ve not thought the whole thing through (putting it kindly).....

That’s true. My question is, “Do they plan on becoming a citizen of that ship?” If they don’t want to support the U.S. with there time, physical presence, and tax dollars, they may as well be a citizen of someplace else. I’m not saying that I like taxes. I don’t. But this is kind of like the hippies that went to Canada back Vietnam war days because they didn’t want to be drafted. Who protects them from harm. About next the UN will decide they are the governing body of that area.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It would make far more sense to set up a land-based startup incubator in another part of the world - perhaps Asia - and convince American talent to move there with tax and legal residency incentives. Imagine how much success (and fun) China could have by offering high-skilled Americans tax-free employment and legal residency with no reporting of income to the IRS and no IRS enforcement of any kind permitted against American expats.

The premise behind Blueseed is "America is so great, everybody wants to come here to work!" I'm not sure that holds any more.

[righttackle44]

The US won’t be able to control them or tax them.

Sure they will. All the U.S. has to do is declare unilaterally that the territorial waters of the United States of America extends 200 miles.

Or, the U.S. could simply torpedo the ships as a barrier to safe navigation.

Would Obama do this?

Snicker, giggle, giggle, snort

[PieterCasparzen]

Ok, I’ll go real slow for you. The boat is 12 miles from Silicon Valley. Obviously that’s to allow management employees that live in that area to “commute” to the boat.

Yes, it’s “legal”.

A funny thing happened in the IT business over the last 20 years, it’s called outsourcing.

A funny think happened in my father’s business, manufacturing, called outsourcing.

So we have generations of people getting ripped off by big business. And being small business people, neither my father nor I was able to successfully out-lobby big business, so the laws and regulations that create the big-business-favorable situation, while opposed by many, ultimately passed. In the name of “free markets”.

But I don’t want to have a business where I hire a hundred programmers in a third-world country and I sell my software here in America. I will only hire Americans for software I sell in America. There is no reason why Americans can’t write the software that they use; there is no reason why Americans can’t make EVERYTHING they use. NONE.

The reason they don’t is because it is dictated from the top of the supply chain, i.e., the largest firms - GE, the auto companies, etc. They are MONOPOLIES. Smaller firms that sell to them have virtually no other customers.

I have worked for big business, as my father did. They are not “pro-American”. They are pro-themselves, even if they run America into the ground.

[Tallguy]

“Owning the ship, or hiring the contractors (cheaply) makes you the owner of an enterprise that is neatly evading the US legal framework by sitting 12 miles offshore.”

Somebody better be prepared to lay a giant bribe at the feet of the leading Democrat politicians else there’s going to be one heckuva Coast Guard inspection in Blueseed’s immediate future.