Here we have some drone footage of Grant and Rudy sitting on the deck of the small-scale model enjoying a glass of wine. While we all like to enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day, this glass of wine had a very important job. It acted as a proof of concept to show the stability of the platform.

The wine test shows that even in water that is not perfectly calm, the structure is able to remain steady and stable. If you were to have a glass of wine in a boat in these similar conditions, it would be sloshing around in the glass and potentially spill. As you can see in the video, the wine is sitting in the glass without sloshing, which means that the structure is remaining stable in the moving water.

We built this small-scale model to test the stability in the real world before we started to build full-scale SeaPod bases. When working on a project like SeaPod, it is important to take your time and not get ahead of yourself.

We did exactly this by starting with the ideas and engineering of the original designs. With the capabilities of computers, we are able to create computer simulations that act similarly to the real world. Through this process, we can make the calculations and adjustments that we need to reach our goals.

Once we feel comfortable with the results of the computer simulations, we can begin to build small-scale models such as the one in this video. While this model won’t go on to be a SeaPod, it was integral in testing our concepts on a small scale so that we weren’t jumping in blindly with a full-sized SeaPod.

This small-scale test was calculated to be exactly ⅓ of the dimensions of the full-sized SeaPod base. By doing this, we can get a pretty good idea of how the full-scale model will act when it is in the water. This result will help us continue going full scale with full confidence in our design.

So while it looks like Grant and Rudy are just enjoying a glass of wine on a platform in the ocean, in reality, there is quite a bit of engineering, science, and experimentation going on. And the results of our test showed that all of our engineering, calculations, simulations, and building came together and aged like a fine wine that will continue to get even better with time.