A scheme to turn a former Love Boat into an offshore community for people who prefer to pay in Bitcoin seemed a little too weird to be true. And now the whole project and the ship are heading for the scrap yard.
A company called Ocean Builders claimed that for prices starting at about $25,000 “digital nomads, YouTube influencers and crypto-currency enthusiasts” could buy a stateroom on the former P&O Cruises ship Pacific Dawn that would be renamed Satoshi. Satoshi is the name of the shadowy creator of Bitcoin.
The ship, which would be anchored off the coast of Panama, beyond the reach of tax collectors, would supposedly have three restaurants and a nightclub operated by third party vendors. But it needed a crew and that’s where things started to fall apart.
In a letter to would-be investors, Ocean Builders CEO Grant Romundt said they had encountered “something we didn’t consider would be a deal-breaker” but became exactly that.
Screen shot of Ocean Builders promotion of the Satoshi
“No protection and indemnity insurance company will insure the Satoshi,” he wrote, adding that all options had “been exhausted.”
Without insurance, he went on to explain, the ship “cannot legally have a crew, which means [it] would lose its class rating and flag and any possibility of running any of the onboard businesses.” As a result, the Satoshi’s trip to what they believed would be her anchorage will instead be her final voyage.
“Once the Satoshi reaches Panama next week, she will be refueled and resupplied and then sent to a scrapyard in India,” the letter concluded.
The 30-year old ship had been through some sea changes. Originally ordered by Sitmar Cruises, that was bought by P&O Group before it was launched, it was christened by Margaret Thatcher in 1991 as the Regal Princess for Princess Cruises. In 2007 after a multimillion-dollar refurbishment in Singapore, it was renamed Pacific Dawn and sailed for P&O Cruises Australia.
The ship was slated to become part of the fleet of Cruise & Maritime Voyages, but that company declared bankruptcy in the summer due to the pandemic lockdown.
There’s no word on the next step for the man fronting the project. Chad Elwartowski is an American bitcoin investor and COO of Ocean Builders, which sells what they call SeaPods—offshore homes on concrete stilts that can be located beyond the jurisdiction of countries. That’s had him in legal troubles in the past.
Design of a SeaPod from Ocean Builders website
As reported by CBC, in 2019, he and his girlfriend Nadia Supranee Thepde, a Thai national, were living 20 kilometers off the coast of Thailand on one of the pods that the government towed to shore and the couple was accused of violating the country’s sovereignty. The couple went into hiding and reportedly could face the death penalty if they are brought back to Thailand and found guilty.
Ocean Builders claims innocence on its website: “We hold no ill will toward the people or government of Thailand. We understand that this was the act of one or two corrupt officials in the Thai navy which had too much power for their own good.”
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