Tiny homes are a fun way to live off-grid with minimal footprint, and houseboats have their own charm. But what happens when you combine them with a semisubmersible design? I guess you end up with the trifecta that we see here today!
It may not look like the typical EVs featured in this Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, but since you can outfit this houseboat with an electric outboard motor of your choosing, it certainly qualifies. However, whether you want to actually live in a partially submerged home that you ordered online from a Chinese shopping website is an entirely other matter.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t at least appreciate it for what it is: a really cool design!
Offered by a company called Kinocean, I’m not sure that the houseboat exists in what most people would consider to be a “real” way.
And by that I mean I can only find renderings of it and not any actual photos showing the company has actually built any of these.
Working with computer renderings likely allows them to focus on the design without getting sidetracked by little details like the below-deck bedroom leaking and getting flooded.
But hey, on paper it sure looks great! That bedroom allows you to fall asleep to the soothing sights and sounds of the ocean surrounding you on every side, waiting for the perfect opportunity to come rushing in and take you on a one-way trip to meet Poseidon.
Upstairs is a living room with even better views out over the whitecaps that are ever present to rock you into a state of relaxation or perpetual sea sickness, depending on your inner ear situation.
There’s also a kitchenette sharing the living room space, allowing residents to prepare a lunch that they can hopefully keep down.
Sliding doors open the main floor into a bit of an outdoor seating area complete with a ladder to drop in for a dip. Never before have you been able to dock your dinghy right onto your living room!
A bathroom in the back appears to include a designer sink, a floating toilet, and a surprisingly spacious shower.
Maximum capacity for the houseboat is listed at eight people, though that occupancy limit is likely more related to weight since there appears to be seating for nine people (or even 10 if you count the toilet), plus however many people can fit in that massive party bed downstairs.
Top comment by Medulla Oblongata
Aquatic vessels have to be heavier at the bottom to prevent them from capsizing. The design shown appears to be top heavy—impractical. How to ensure the water line will be where shown in the rendering?
What if everyone sits down for dinner on one side of the vessel? Would it not capsize?
With a weight limit of 1,600 pounds (725 kg), you may want to keep a bathroom scale on the dock before you bring too many friends aboard. You’ll know the houseboat is overloaded if your couch starts getting soggy.
The price of just US $12,000 seems suspiciously cheap and may be related to the fact that the vendor seems to have two different semisubmersible vessels listed on the same page.
Either way, the fact that there doesn’t appear to actually be a houseboat like this in existence yet makes me somewhat hesitant to start a bank transfer to the Chinese factory. It’s not like I haven’t bought electric boats sight unseen from China before (I actually have), but this seems like a bit more of a risk than I want to take.
But hey, whatever… floats your boat?
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