[gggggggg]

Am I reading this right. I could HIRE a container ship for $5500 a day? A whole ship! Does not seem right to me, crew costs would have to be more than that.

> Indeed, according to Alphaliner, there are about 40 panamax container vessels currently seeking employment on the spot market against an unfavourable backdrop of oversupply. It said that charter rates remained “stuck at rock-bottom levels” – typically at about just $5,000-$5,500 a day

[walrus01]

Calling Peter Thiel, if there's about to be a glut of unwanted "old Panamax" container ships on the market for charter, maybe some will be for sale? Buy a few, strap them together and put them 13 miles off the coast of SF. What can possibly go wrong?

[ubernostrum]

13 miles off the coast of SF. What can possibly go wrong?

13mi offshore? What can go wrong is you're still in US territorial waters; they end ~4,200 feet further out, because territorial waters are defined in nautical miles.

But even if you amend to "13 nautical miles off the coast", you run into "Hi, you're still in our exclusive economic zone." To get out of that and truly be free of both territorial and economic-exploitation claims of existing states, you need to be more than 200nm from any coast. Which is ~230mi and a bit more of a hassle to commute to, supply, etc., not to mention you'd need to build a stable anchorage for them and all the natural ones are, well, within the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of existing states.

[colanderman]

I believe it was a reference to Neil Stephenson's novel "Snow Crash".

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

Peter Thiel's probably too busy speaking at white nationalist conferences.

[danvayn]

I have a feeling those are BYOC - bring your own crew.

[neffy]

Still, it's got to beat those stupid luxury yachts.

[gggggggg]

even docked in a harbor, it would be a great novelty corporate event location. And cheaper than many other options.

Though I assume docking fees would be above the $5500 a day.

[toomuchtodo]

You'd anchor out in the basin and ferry to it on a pilot boat or tug.

[hanniabu]

Minus all the fancy amenities

[ethbro]

I dunno, I can fit a lot of amenities in 5,000 teu...

[walrus01]

in a lot of individual 20 or 40 ft long amenities, as long as your amenities are not wider than 8' and 9.5 ft high.

[jhayward]

Yes, but then you need to buy ~200 metric tons of fuel per day (@ $500/MT), pay port and canal charges ($350,000 each way for a PanaMax), etc.