I see the initial establishment of a permanent ocean-centric community as an important step in being able to design new forms of social structure and technology to actually live there full time. There is a huge need for specialization of labour, and one of those specialities is almost certainly going to be transportation to and from the seastead to shore for both goods and people.

• I think a mothership is the best way to start. If Greenpeace can operate ships with a non-commercial agenda, then captialists should be able to make a go of independent shipping.
• Plenty of "tramp" ships have existed until at least recent decades. Probably still do. Competitive advantage in this case would be the specific audience being catered to (seasteaders) and reputation and trust established within that community.
• There are other markets as well- the independent copra market has declined in recent years in many Pacific islands because collection had a fairly low margin. However, this low margin might be supplemented in other ways, again by building relationships.
• Copra could provide a source for biodiesel mathed by a need for biodiesel in the Seastead community. Ta-da! symbiosis.
• As I pointed out in the Cost thread, percentages in some fairly large and capable used ships are easily within the range of a terrestrial home purchase.
• Condominiums manage to make individual investment in community housing not only feasible, but very economically efficient.
• It would need to be a process of application and approval, to ensure the correct mix of skills and temperaments, with resumes and interviews, and possibly probationary periods.

This should probably be cross-posted to the Industry thread.