Before fabrication
Feasibility gate
No irreversible bronze spend until legal/environmental feasibility and a credible deployment path exist.
Funding model
£350,000.
No occult accounting.
A provisional working budget for sculpture, engineering, freight, a long-range vessel, documentation and the contingency demanded by trying to carry a large bronze Great Old One to the least convenient address on Earth.
Sculpture£80,000
Engineering & deployment£25,000
Transport & port handling£20,000
Vessel & expedition£150,000
Legal, environmental & insurance£20,000
Filming & communications£15,000
Administration & logistics£10,000
Contingency£30,000
The £150,000 vessel allowance remains a planning figure pending real charter quotations. The 18-22 day voyage model should be put to operators before launch; if credible quotations materially exceed it, the public target must change rather than pretending the Pacific can be negotiated with.
What the vessel budget must buy
Roughly three weeks of competent seamanship.
The ship allowance is not merely cabin accommodation. It must cover a vessel capable of the range, crew, fuel, operational days, deck handling, communications, safety systems and support for the deployment. Port costs, unusual lift requirements and schedule extensions may be quoted separately.
For that reason, the current £350,000 total is a working target, not a promise that the expedition can be delivered for exactly that figure.
Staged funding
The target is cumulative. The spending decisions are conditional.
The full campaign target is currently approximately £350,000, but the project does not depend on treating that figure as an all-or-nothing threshold.
Funds raised at lower levels would support the work appropriate to that stage. The key principle is simple: money becoming available does not, by itself, authorise the next irreversible commitment.
Early funding
Feasibility, legal and environmental advice, engineering studies, foundry consultation, vessel enquiries and insurance discussions.
After feasibility
Final design, detailed engineering and fabrication only if the legal, environmental and operational work still supports the project.
After quotations
Vessel, freight, port, deployment and insurance commitments only when the project has real supplier prices and sufficient funds to proceed responsibly.
Before sailing
The final expedition should not be contracted until the project has an executable plan, adequate insurance, appropriate permissions and enough contingency to avoid relying on optimism as a marine safety system.
If the full target is not reached:
The project would complete and publish the stages that can responsibly be funded. If the full expedition later proves technically, legally or financially impracticable, the project will publish what was raised, what was spent, what work was completed, what remains unspent and what realistic options remain.
Civilian berth income
Up to £180,000, separately accounted for.
The supporter programme proposes up to six civilian places at £30,000 each. If all six are sold, gross receipts would be £180,000. Those receipts should not simply disappear into the headline crowdfunding number.
The preferred accounting treatment is to publish them separately and apply them primarily against passenger-related and vessel costs. Once contracts are signed, the campaign budget can be revised to show whether berth income reduces the net amount required from donations or instead covers an expanded/safer vessel specification.
Do not count uncontracted berth sales as secured funding. The six places are provisional and may shrink if the vessel needs those berths for technical staff, film crew, medical personnel or scientific partners.
Milestones
The stars need not all be right at once.
The project advances in stages. Early money should buy information and engineering before it buys irreversible bronze.
£10,000
The Investigation
Legal/environmental scoping, engineering feasibility, foundry discussions and vessel market enquiries.
£50,000
The Design Freeze
Develop the approved sculpture, mass model, lifting concept, preliminary deployment method and serious supplier quotations.
£100,000
The Idol
Principal sculpture fabrication can begin once legal and operational assumptions are sufficiently mature.
£200,000
Towards R'lyeh
Vessel negotiations, insurance, port logistics and deployment hardware move from estimates to commitments.
£300,000
Point Nemo
The expedition should be close to contractable, subject to final permissions and updated vessel pricing.
£350,000
The Stars Are Provisionally Right
Present working target, including contingency. If quotations show it is inadequate, the budget will be revised publicly.
Financial controls
The joke is not the accounting.
Major quotations, material budget revisions and principal commitments should be published as the project develops. A simple public change log can show the date, reason and effect of each revision.
Project expenditure should be tracked by category, with GoFundMe receipts distinguished from separate commercial receipts such as expedition berths. Any material unused contingency should be disclosed with the final accounts and its proposed treatment explained.
Before charter
Funding gate
No vessel commitment until the project has adequate funds, insurance and an executable lift/deployment plan.
After return
Close-out
Publish principal costs, berth receipts, remaining contingency and the final project archive.
A note on fees: payment-processing treatment and GoFundMe's current UK terms must be checked immediately before launch. The public target should represent the amount the project actually needs, not a cosmetically pleasing number.