(Replace this first paragraph with a brief description of your new category. This guidance will appear in the category selection area, so try to keep it below 200 characters. Until you edit this description or create topics, this category won’t appear on the categories page.)
Use the following paragraphs for a longer description, or to establish category guidelines or rules:
Why should people use this category? What is it for?
How exactly is this different than the other categories we already have?
What should topics in this category generally contain?
Do we need this category? Can we merge with another category, or subcategory?
To Mariners and other readers, I have to start somewhere and I am sure someone will put me on the right track for what is not a new idea. I have a deep water sheltered anchorage in Fiji and a specific demographic in mind as a customer base. The intention is provide high quality accommodation for the under represented demographic of the over 50’s but with the additional benefit of high end medical care. Hotels and purpose built retirement homes offer many of the same benefits but are expensive to build, require a construction programme of some two years and are unreasonable expensive for the occupants due to obscene profit taking by the developers. There are some 30 Cruise Ships for sale and by locating the cruise ship in sheltered waters behind a pristine coral reef, retains all the elements which make cruising attractive without the disadvantages of sea sickness, ocean storms and high fuel costs. There are several precedents, including the Queen Mary and I could display spreadsheets, anchorage designs, access facilities etc but the questions are should I charter, joint venture, mortgage, or go for the standard Fijian solution and just build another Hotel?
Have no experience in a venture such as this but having been on stacked ships and anchored ships for long periods of time, my word of caution involves the incredible amount of underestimated maintenance requirements for ships just anchored and used as a flaoting hotel. Incredibly decieving is the best way I could describe it. Better contact any engineering/ navarch firm that has had any interface with MARAD mothballed ships or such to get a realistic appraisel of the true maintenenance overhead you would be facing.