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Ling Xin

The first scientific ship built by private interests in China is still waiting for its first assignment after it launched last month near Wenling, in Zhejiang province, on the east coast, according to Chinese media reports.
The 82 metre-long (269-foot), 3,500-tonne Haiying Jiake research vessel was built with 150 million yuan (US$22 million) raised by 37 Zhejiang fishermen.
It is designed to operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including in thin sea ice, and support research ranging from seabed mapping to deep-sea biological and geological surveys.
But as of mid-June, the vessel had yet to secure its first contract, Cai Yunjie, the 51-year-old former fisherman who spearheaded the project, told state-owned Science and Technology Daily. “We still do not have a clear plan for how the ship will make money.”
Chen Jiawang, deputy director of the East China Sea Laboratory, said in the same report that operating costs for the Haiying Jiake amounted to hundreds of thousands of yuan a day, with annual maintenance and operating expenses exceeding 10 million yuan.


According to the report, the fundamental challenge is that China has little established market for privately owned research vessels. Instead, most belong to universities and government research institutes, with their operating costs covered by public funding.
At the same time, smaller universities and research institutes that did not have their own vessels often faced administrative hurdles in chartering privately owned ships, it said.
Wang Ruifei, chairman of the development committee at Zhejiang University’s College of Oceanography, said private research vessels should be incorporated into China’s national marine research programmes.
“Current science funding and management systems create barriers to entry,” he said. “Private research vessels need policy support to undertake national research missions.”
Cai said the idea came to him in 2024, when he learned that China lacked enough research vessels to meet the growing demand from marine scientists. At first, he envisioned a much smaller ship to support offshore wind farm surveys.
However, after touring two national research vessels operated by Xiamen University and the Taihu Laboratory in Wuxi, he changed his mind. “If we were going to build one, it had to match the world’s best,” Cai said.
Cai put in more than 20 per cent of the capital and convinced his fellow fishermen to invest, some contributing just tens of thousands while others put in several million yuan.
Jia Xuanrong, the vessel’s technical director, said the project was unlike anything he had encountered in nearly two decades in the shipbuilding industry.
“There were more than 2,000 construction drawings and many of the technical specifications looked like a foreign language,” he said. “I’d never even heard of some of the specialised equipment.”


To tackle the technical challenges, Jia travelled to research institutes across China. He recorded experts’ explanations during the day, then spent his evenings in hotel rooms replaying the recordings while poring over technical manuals.
His son, who works in e-commerce, also joined the project.
The finished vessel was built to international standards, according to the report. It can operate in gale-force winds, maintain its position with metre-level precision during scientific work and carry equipment for exploring the deepest parts of the ocean.
Cai remains optimistic that the vessel will eventually find its place.
“Even if the Haiying Jiake does not take part in any research missions this year, I’m sure it will get its chance next year, or the year after,” he said. “There are still so many unknowns in the ocean waiting to be explored. Someone had to build the first ship.”
Cai said that if the project succeeded, he hoped to build an icebreaking research vessel for polar expeditions.
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A month after launch, the fishermen who sank 150 million yuan into the project have yet to secure their first client


A month after launch, the fishermen who sank 150 million yuan into the project have yet to secure their first client.


East China Sea

Why is no one chartering China’s first privately owned research vessel?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A month after launch, the fishermen who sank 150 million yuan into the project have yet to secure their first client

A month after launch, the fishermen who sank 150 million yuan into the project have yet to secure their first client