Ephemerisle shelter options

[mattbell]

There appear to be several possible ways to get cheap-ish sleeping arrangements at Ephemerisle.

A Coleman Party Island is cheap ($80 with shipping) and could probably sleep 2, but I'm concerned about general flimsiness and the hole in the middle.  It's unlikely that you could move around in it or step in and out without accidentally letting some water in.  And yeah... if I'm going to have a sleeping bag and whatnot on there, I don't want it all getting wet.  This is the cheapest item per person, but I'm not convinced of its seaworthiness as a long term shelter.  Has anyone bought one yet?

One option to stabilize it would be to buy a kiddie pool of the appropriate size and place it inside the Coleman Party Island, thus providing additional watertight protection and eliminating the issue of the hole.  Thin 1/8" fiberboards on foam tiles (to prevent rupture) could be used to distribute the weight evenly across the float and let people sit on the hole.  

So the total cost of a usable Coleman island might be around $120, which would not be bad at $60 a person.

Ironically, the Coleman *mini* party island, while slightly smaller, has no hole in the middle but is more than twice as expensive.  

The Aquaglide Aloha provides a somewhat bigger platform that could sleep 3, but it costs around $200.  It's probably best paired with a kiddie pool as well to keep the water out and minimize chance of puncture.   Thus total cost with shipping and kiddie pool is probably around $270, or $90/person.

The Aquaglide Lanai, another big hexagon, provides a hell of a lot of stability and durability (aka peace of mind) -- it's designed to be towed, so it probably can handle people walking on it and other abuses.  It could perhaps sleep 3 though it's slightly smaller than the Aloha.  .At $250+shipping it's a bit pricy.  Still, ~$100/person for peace of mind isn't bad.   Plus, we could get towed and that would be tons of fun.  See video of towing and of assembly of multiple platforms.  Looks super stable, plus the dog's claws didn't puncture it.

We could also build our own platform with wood and air barrels, but that means lots of extra work and having a big not-collapsible item that needs to be stored somewhere when we're done.

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Any of these platforms, properly padded, would support a tent or other shade structure.  Or they could be turned into lounges with pillows
These platforms could likely be strung together into larger networks, creating social spaces.  

Cost-wise, I'd likely be comfortable with all these approaches.  If you're interested in joining me on this, let me know, and let me know how much you'd be willing to spend on your floating bed.  We can all contribute pieces to make a bigger flotilla.  If we get a decently sized group and all chip in a bit extra, we could add in a communal lounge structure.  

I could get all ambitious and put a theme camp together.  If a bunch of people are interested in going and we all get similar structures together, we could create a small flotilla of cool stuff to visit.  Perhaps if we go with the Aquaglides, which are hexagonal, we could call the whole thing Hex Camp just for the inside joke related to a burningman effort from 2007 that produced this beautiful giant board game and copious social side effects.  

Oh, and if anyone wants to trick out a R/C speedboat to be a glowing floating squid, I'd love some project partners.

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UPDATE:  It looks like the various houseboat rental options also work out to around $100/person if they're still available (which I'll find out tomorrow).  
http://www.ephemerisle.org/structures.html

Comments

[spoonless.livejournal.com]

Thanks for directing me to this... I haven't checked lj in forever, so it probably would have taken me a while to see it.

I am very impressed with the Aquaglide video. What do you think of the "softpack option" in the video? Looks very comfortable to sleep on, sort of gives you a pillow without having to bring anything else out there to serve as one. I think I'd vote for getting that with the softpack option... although I could imagine downsides of having tbe softpack during the day. Being able to fit a cooler inside it seems nice too though!

Anyway, I'm fine with chipping in ~$100 for whatever I sleep on. And yeah, I'm leaning towards going now assuming all of this comes together. Sounds like you're actually getting on top of things... excellent! I should start thinking about it too.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Cool!

I don't know how much the softpack compresses for night storage. I do like to lie down when I sleep. We could probably rig up something else interesting that would meet your needs.

[spoonless.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting. I guess we had opposite reactions to the softpack... I was thinking "would be perfect for sleeping at night, but may get in the way during the day" whereas you were thinking "good for day, but would need to compress at night" :)

Looking at it again, I guess you're right, it is at a bit more of an incline than I realized. I'd be fine with lying down flat as long as I had some kind of pillow... maybe they make plastic blowup pillows? Ｉguess any small inflatable flotation device might work.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

I have tons of playa-grade pillows I can bring. :-)

[spoonless.livejournal.com]

They're probably good to bring, but I do worry that they will end up getting wet. For some reason, sleeping on a soggy traditional pillow is far less appealing to me than sleeping on something that is plastic and blown up with air.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

That's where the kiddie pool comes in. :-) It creates another layer of protection.