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Koch blamed himself in a rambling voice message to Steyn: “The whole thing is a complete disaster. It is beyond my wildest fears . . . This was a complete fuck up, and it was my fault.” The Phuket port barbecue had to be called off, Koch decided. “The admirals are probably rolling on the floor, laughing. It’s going to be news all over the planet tomorrow. One million dollars spent for negative publicity,” he said. “I think I’m done.”
Having abandoned the SeaPod venture, at least for the moment, Koch noted that he would have time to “take care of loose ends in Thailand”. He wanted to “eliminate anyone who had anything to do with” impounding XLII. “Those people should pray to their fucking Buddha.”
But by then, Steyn’s situation in Phuket was sinking too. His attempts to muscle into the Bangla Road bar scene had brought him into contact with someone he later claimed was a conman. His money troubles intensified and, according to the text and voice messages, Koch became increasingly suspicious of Steyn. Disagreement between the two intensified through December 2022, when Steyn was forced to surrender ownership of the go-go bars.
When Koch finally accused him of theft, Steyn threatened to go to Thai authorities and the press with what he knew. Information about Koch’s vendetta appears to have leaked to the Seasteading Institute in San Francisco, which cancelled a contract it had with Ocean Builders in January 2023. “Congratulations. I decided to shut down Ocean Builders completely,” Koch wrote to Steyn, almost in resignation. “That was discussed after the disastrous grand opening last year, and this makes the decision final. I will not receive a public backlash just to save a money-losing operation.”
Amid the squabbles, it seems Koch finally turned his imagination towards Steyn. “I picked some nice little scumbags from the streets of Colón,” he told him. “Putting them through some Nikita training. Once they are old enough, they will be 100% loyal . . . They will know how to eat and talk with manners. And they will know how to use a box cutter or a G36.”
Steyn assumed Koch was referencing the 1990 Luc Besson film, La Femme Nikita, in which a female felon is retrained as an assassin. A G36 is an assault rifle used by the German military. Steyn didn’t make much of the threat at the time, according to the transcripts. The row continued until March this year, when Steyn cut off communications. He left Thailand and is now living in hiding.
Back in January this year, the Ocean Builders team released a news update declaring, with “great sadness”, that Koch was stepping down as president and chief engineer. Health reasons were cited and the move was said to be effective immediately, with Koch taking on a future “advisory role”. But Koch was still working at the Ocean Builders’ yard, when the FT made a quiet visit recently, directing a small team of welders, grinding and binding the giant rusting underbelly of a new Ocean Builders pod.
Publicly, the venture is now run on a day-to-day basis by Romundt, while Elwartowski has taken over as president. Undeterred by the sinking last year, the demonstration pod from the launch has been refloated at Puerto Lindo, close to the Ocean Builders’ yard. Adventurous individuals can rent it out for $595 a night, meaning that, for now, Koch’s seasteading dream is more high-end Airbnb than new Atlantis.