New Structure For Water Living

"I was thinking about all the rules and regulations people are forced to follow and how much it all costs, when it occured to me that it would probably be cheaper to build on the water than on land", he said. "So I set out to determine the least expensive way to do just that."

What Morris came up with is a floating platform from which a person can construct anything, from a floating dock, bridge, pool, golf green, fish farm, boat lift, or--as far fetched as it may sound--an island.

Morris's product, which he calls Seacell, is cylindrical with no bottom, and it floats. His prototype cells are 2 feet, 8 inches by 2 feet, 8 inches at the base, and stand 1 foot, 8 inches tall.

Each cell retails for about $70.

"They're made of polyethylene for salt water resistance", said Morris, "plus they have excellent impact resistance and flexibility. They can't be destroyed by fuel or marine life like foam products can. They're also environmentally friendly, recyclable and can be made ultraviolet resistant."

Morris said regular Styrofoam floation devices are easily ingested by animals and absorb bacteria.

"When I researched and developed the structures, I began by playing with fiberglass", he said. "But I found that the polyethylene worked better and was easier to make. You just throw the powder into a mold and rotate it in a furnance until it's stuck evenly on the wall of the mold. The finished product is more impact resistant than steel or aluminum. You can take a hammer to it and it won't crack; instead it will flex a little."

Morris said he chose the upright cylindrical shape with no bottom because it stacks easily and the design permits water to act like a piston inside the cavity. When water enters the bottom, the resulting pressure holds the cells upright, offering greater stability than other flotation devices on the market, he claimed.

The pressure created on the inside of the cell also helps to increase strength and to uniformly support structures such as floating docks. There are also inlets for beams to reinforce the floating surface.

"Each cell will support 300 to 400 pounds depending on how much ballast water you want for stability", said Morris. "You can increase your stability by letting air out. Think of it like a glass of water in a tub that you remove upside down. The water will not break out of the glass until it reaches the surface, but you're lifting the weight of the water in the glass.

At the time of this writing, Morris was busy building a prototype floating swimming pool using his Seacell device.

"I'm building a floating pool and dock for a friend down the street", said Morris. "There will be a boardwalk around the pool, in the middle is a pool liner. You just pour in the fresh water. The end result is you have pool water on one side of the membrane and river water on the other.

Angelo Giordano of Get Wet Swimming Instruction is helping fund this project because he has movable pools he takes to communities for swim instruction."

Morris' vision, however, is far greater than the mere sight of floating pools. He would like to use the structures to build a floating island community 12 miles off the coast in international waters.

"The whole design of such a system would be to hook the parts together and be flexible", said Morris. "When waves come through, the structures would be responsive to them, rather than crashing through them. It would be more like a thin film responding to waves versus a big ship which plows into waves."

Each of Morris's modules for such a project might be as large as an acre, with each one hinged to the next for flexibility.

"That's the key to making such a system work economically", he said.