I'm thinking of starting a lab on a boat. This boat.
The Idea: Scientists on a boat. We live cheap but happy. Basic amenities are provided for you (rice/beans/water/beer/wifi + good accommodation), however you can of course bring your own stuff (food, furniture, etc). You will have to help with chores (like going to shore to get petrol, etc) and sailing from time to time. There is no restriction on what you can research, however the crew is going to be changing a lot since living on a boat for years isn't most people's dream, so a 6-8 month project that you can do sitting on a beach with a laptop is probably ideal. You will probably be sick of sun and sand after 8 months anyway.
The Goal: The mantra is "Be good then do good". The life of a scientist is kind of stressful and shitty, plus you don't make a lot of money most of the time. Your health goes to shit, and your work generally soon goes to shit with it. I would personally prefer it if crew members worked on projects that were some-what rebellious, in the sense of going against normal traditions - but of course applications must be as serious as the work we do. For example, I am a bioinformatician so I want to churn out post-publication peer-reviews of the data analysis in high-profile papers once or twice a week. You don't make any friends doing post-publication peer review, but I think that's what my field needs right now...
The Money: I've worked hard my whole life and saved up around €300,000 - so that will get the ball rolling buying the boat and fitting her out. She'll be bought under a non-profit. I'll try and get a deal/sponsorship with Amazon to get some cheap server time when we're in port, and there will be a small server room on the boat for when we're out of port. Maybe there will be other opportunities to make money in unconventional ways (tax donations, YouTube, start-ups born on the boat), etc. [1/2]
This is the boat i'm planning on buying, however there are quite a few alternatives in roughly the same price range (€250,000 after repairs) so i'm not tied to it:
If anyone has any suggestions on how to shape the project, i'd be grateful to hear it. If it's a stupid idea and you guys dont think it'll work, then that's good, i need to hear it, and i'll just buy a smaller yacht for myself, hehe.
All the best!
Samuel Scott
Sweet idea/project bro! Where do I sign up?
Anthony Peterson
this guy is taking breaking bad to a whole new level
Michael Bailey
There can only be one Captain on a boat, you need to bring at least one woman and watch out for mutiny.
Ethan Parker
as a sailor i suggest you get an actual job on a boat in the area you're planning to move around in to decide if that's what you really want. sealife isnt all sandy beaches and palm trees mate, there's storms, seasickness, tension between crewmates from living together 24/7... just my advice.
Christian Torres
Not only is this dumb, it is supremely autistic. Who in the fuck would want to do this?
Sorry OP.
Isaiah Green
Bad idea, op. That's an extremely tiny boat. Satellite internet is very very costly, as are docking fees, and a crew to captain the boat if you don't know how to sail. DesaliniTion kits are also expensive and if you don't have one you'll have to bring water which will severely limit the number of people you can have onboard (just cause there is room, doesn't really mean there is room).
Ayden Cox
Oh, well, there's about 6 months of work that needs to happen first. I need to buy the boat, haul her out and make repairs, get the engines cleaned, etc etc - not to mention create the non-profit and some sort of website/blog for people to send applications too... so at the moment i'm just seeing if i'm the only person who thinks this could work, or there's actually a legitimate interest among scientists for this sort of lifestyle. Although i'm ready and willing, it's a lot of money to drop on an idea that isn't popular.
I say scientists, i would ideally like a statistician and a professional programmer in the mix, so really it's just a boat of research-orientated hackers..
So if you want me to send you a mail in about 6 months or there abouts, please e-mail me at [email protected]
Haha, I don't have a Captain's Licence (which a specific, fairly difficult thing to get), but i do have an International Certificate of Competence so the upgrade wouldn't take too long. But i mean, you can totally have more than one skipper. Hell, I need to sleep, and anyone can steer a boat in an ocean using the GPS.
I've sailed - i'm just thinking about combining my two things :)
Heheh, that's the reaction i expected :)
It's about 30ft longer than a boat i did a transatlantic crossing on :) The fees you refer to are significant though, but i've done the math and I think it's possible if I can bring in as little as 30k a year.
Alexander Williams
I hope it's a computer """"lab""""" because you're gonna have a hard time having reagents and cells delivered if this is a bio lab. Not to mention legal troubles from waste dumping.
Nathan Parker
Ah, i couldn't do bio on a boat. The sea is the opposite of a controlled environment :P But biologists could come aboard to work with programmers on software, or just to talk research if they pay their way and no one else needs the cabin
Joshua Lewis
Yeah OP here on Veeky Forums were not allowed to have fun and everyone is autistic don't take it personally Autist
Dominic Cruz
you're an insane freak who should be locked up in a mental institute.
William Cooper
Seems ideal for ocean exploration more than anything else.
It's going to be insanely expensive, a boat is a huge investment to maintain and generally does not produce sufficient income to support itself.
You're better off using that money to start a small company, rent some cheap office space and try to use that and prey you become profitable to continue your own existence, which of course you won't because most don't and you're already planning on doing this on a fucking boat.
Justin Reed
pray*
Josiah Young
250k after repairs in boatspeak means minimum 350k, don't you know?
even if it was 250k, i'm not sure how you intend on launching/sustaining research projects on 50k. A 70 foot motorsailor is a few thousand per month just for maintenance. It's wood, which means a few things: one, you're an idiot, and two, it will be even more expensive. AND it's a motorsailer, implying you would motorsail at least part of the time. Motorsailing is ridiculously expensive. The fuel alone is probably like $20/hr or more. If you plan on motorsailing for a day, that's $500. Plus increased maintenance on the motors due to usage.
Go price out a haul-out and replacing a few planks. I dare you.
Go buy a 50k fiberglass boat and thank me in a few years.
Also, I recommend french polynesia. You can buy the boat there - a lot of people make the crossing from North America and leave the boat there and end up selling it.
Dylan Adams
>wave hits boat >acid in face
Oliver Robinson
>claims to be a scientist >not smart enough to realize you can't be healthy enough to do science more complicated than high school experiments on a diet of "rice/beans/water/beer/wifi" >somehow thinks any of that amounts to "good accommodation"
Ryder Adams
I had this idea as well but on a small homestead farm instead. I can apply things to optimize food growth, maybe sell surplus, or find ways to make extra cash online. The rest will be like an incubator of sorts, publishing papers or establishing a small start up. I work in machine learning so I was thinking my skills could be put to better use in the coming future than this fucking grad school im in.
Henry Sanders
Exactly, an incubator - with all the best aspects of the expertise, freedom to be creative, new-surroundings to get you excited, etc - but without the money. And by bringing together people on specific topics for a few months, see what happens. And the focus you get by living out of a bag which I think the above comments suggest not everyone appreciates - which is fine. Some people have kids and shit so whatever. But I think as a concentrator for young reseaerchers just finished a Masters or PhD and realise that the next academic goal is just another cub-scoutt badge in a massive game of "i'm more senior so ii know more", living on a boat and focusing on the research with other like-minded people is going to appeal.
I'm starting to rethink the boat choice though. As points out, it IS a motorsailer, which I thought was just like my sail boat but with a bigger engine, but now i find out the sails aren't powerful enough to push her waterline length without the motors. Meh. I thought the price was too good to be true.
Theres plenty more yachts in the sea
Ethan Roberts
The idea itself isn't bad but let's be real: it's practically unfeasable.
I'd imagine you'd get a lot of publicity/interviews in the news and such.
Chase Rogers
Lol yeah why get a boat? Why not get together and build a space ship and travel through the galaxies? Lol dumbass.
Kevin Lopez
I think as competition to a regular biology/chemistry lab, yes, but as it's a computer lab, i'm not too sure it would be any less efficient in output than a standard lab. It would be more expensive to run the lab, but theres no institute fees nor employees to pay, which is probably the biggest cost of a lab.
It really all depends on the people who join :/
Jace White
>"i'm more senior so ii know more" This is exactly why I quit 5 years in the industry despite a good pay to pursue a PhD. I didn't even have a goal other than to linger in grad school/academia as long as possible. Now I am thinking I should've moved to san fran like my college buddies did for a startup. Lifes probably tough as shit but at least I would've felt like I was living.
Benjamin Lewis
Maybe - but hey, knowing how shitty it can be is worth something. People who join a startup and get lucky end up fucked in the head. People who join a startup and don't get lucky just get fucked.
Maybe with some perspective now is the right time for you to ask your college buddies what they're up to these days
Austin Price
I think it goes without saying the diet could be supplemented with some seafood? I would be more concerned with water though but I guess you can bring a small desalinizer onboard or a lactating woman.
