The Mariners



To emphasize, embelish, and develop on the theme and idea of Seattle as a port city, a city of Mariners, we will expand the availability of watercraft to ordinary Seattlelites.

Design and purchase of some 10,000 large craft and several hundred thousand smaller, all of which will be on loan to residents of 6 months or more.

Assuming 300,000 households (at present...everything to be scaled upwards as numbers double or tripple), that is about 30 households per large craft, meaning a "family" will have up to 12 days per year that it can requisition the craft for outings, with a mix of reservation, lottery, and time-share rules governing access, assuring fair and plentiful opportunity for every Seattle resident to enjoy the boating lifestyle, without the investment of some 500,000 dollars per craft (guestimate).

Thousands of jobs will be created to maintain, supply, and fix the craft.

The lesser-scaled water craft costing anywhere between 500 dollars and 25,000 averaging perhaps at about 5,000 will number some 200,000 and will be stricly on a first come first served basis (though constrained to 7 days consequtively or 10 days per month).

Cost assumes about 15 percent maintanance costs per year and about 6 billion for the initial outley, not including maintanance and storage facilities.

Many trainers to prepare future captains will be in great demand.

Anyone wishing to enjoy the craft will have to prove to two or more reviewers/testers, that they are capable captains and are able to maintain their craft in tip top shape...one test being cleaning up after a randomly chosen returning craft, which must be examined for damage and cleanliness....and which must be examined and cleaned by the would-be captain, both in a competent and fullsome manner.

As long as people are respectful of these craft, and take good care of them, they will be free to use them at their discretion.
 (feul purchased by SC **)




**The aim is to design engines that are electric for the boats, with high capacity batteries, eliminating the much higher fuel costs that would otherwise accrue from the projected useage on such a large scale.
The initial goal is for the batteries to be able to generate enough energy for about 1500 nautical miles of travel, and over time replace these batteries with ones that can multiply this range several times, as the technology permits.