You wake up to the rocking of the ship, then grab a delicious breakfast in the sun before launching into the day’s work. Meetings and brainstorming are interrupted only by diving and sunbathing, and you watch the sunset over drinks with your fellow coworkers. This is Coboat.
Four international entrepreneurs are launching a coworking boat, not to be confused with a coworking space. Coboat will set sail in November 2015 from Southeast Asia and make its way around the world in a year, as it picks up and drops off passengers. The boat holds 20 at a time, and you can reserve a week- ($971), month- ($3,884), or year-long journey ($50,630) now.
The price includes:
- Shared accommodations, with bunk and double beds.
- 24/7 Internet: 3G or 4G near land, and satellite-powered communications at sea.
- Three meals a day, including non-alcoholic drinks
- Water sports equipment and a diving package
- All port fees and charges
Coboat begins its voyage in Thailand and will head through the Maldives and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, then the Mediterranean (spring/summer 2016), and the Caribbean (late 2016), hitting everywhere from Bali to the Great Barrier Reef to Barcelona to the Galapagos.
Founders Karsten Knorr (Australia), James Abbott (Thailand), Tommy Westlin (Finland), and Gerald Schömbs (Germany) developed the idea while at Kohub, Abbott’s coworking space in Ko Lanta. Their vision combines the traditional tenets of coworking – like community and idea exchange – with their beliefs about sustainability and work-life balance.
Coboat’s 82-foot catamaran will use solar and wind energy for electricity, and desalinated seawater as a water supply. When the winds pick up, it will sail; when they don’t, its energy stores will power it along. Oils and fossil fuels aren’t allowed on board.
The founders also endorse a nautical kind of work-life balance. “Coboat is not for workaholics!” their website says. “Life aboard Coboat is all about achieving balance and creating a life to love: When you need a break from work, get unplugged, connect with others, or dive into the crystal clear blue water.”
Coboat tickets don’t come cheap, and being stuck on an 82-foot boat sharing rooms certainly isn’t for everyone. But it sure sounds idyllic, beautiful, and adventurous. Traditional digital nomads move every few weeks or months and have to suffer the work-interrupting trouble of riding or flying to their next destination. Coboat ensures that its passengers will get to experience multiple exotic locations without the hassle of travel – it’s digital nomadism minus the economy-class flights, cramped overnight trains, and noisy, cheap hotels. Oh, and with a kickass view.
