The oceanographic community is at work on the orderly replacement of its aging fleet. The University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) Fleet Replacement Committee, chaired by Bob Dinsmore, is coordinating the effort, which is now in Phase I and includes studies of eight conceptual designs: two conventional general‐purpose ships, two Small Water Plane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) ships, two specialized geology and geophysics ships, one sail‐assisted ship, and one ship of innovative design. A community‐wide workshop will be held in January, 1985, to report on the progress of Phase I. After this workshop and its reviews, Phase II of the replacement plan will consider detailed design studies for a subset of the eight original con