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a "floating building" is a BOAT, and an unmaintained boat is a WRECK, both of which are items having known failure modes and known short lifetimes.

How much money went down that hole? Would it have had a more positive impact if you'd taken it and spread it around the area's kids in cash?

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This comment highlighted a gap in my understanding of things a bit: what makes a yacht a yacht vs just a boat?

A Yacht is a large pleasure boat. There's no exact definition, but you wouldn't call a 15 ft motor boat a yacht or a 40 ft work boat. Any well maintained 30 ft plus boat that's not used for commercial purposes could reasonably be called a yacht.

Edited to add: The structure in the article is in my opinion, not a boat: Boats have a means of propulsion, (sails, oars, motor) this floating school is a barge.

"Barge" is a much better word; thank you.

As far as I know (which isnt that far), it's pretty well known that "things people build" + water leads to impermanence. Anything on the water continues to exist because of constant maintenance. This thing didn't look painted.

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