An Unreasonable mix charts the reasonable course

Makers of solar-battery-powered hearing aids, plant-based water purifiers and a raft of other pioneering products plus around 600 college students sailing round the world on a passenger liner could be seen as an unreasonable mix.

But the organisers and participants of Unreasonable at Sea hope the 105-day voyage, with calls at 15 cities including Hong Kong and Shanghai, will open up new markets for their products. They also hope they will help local small and medium-sized enterprises exchange business ideas and find solutions to common problems.

Daniel Epstein, founder of the US-based Unreasonable Institute, said eight of the 11 companies on the trip were already profitable while all were generating combined revenues of tens of millions of US dollars.

He said the operation took its name from a quote by George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Firms taking part include Protei, which makes a remotely controlled marine drone capable of cleaning plastic debris and oil spills, and charcoal-cooker maker Prakti Design.

Gabriella Levine, an electrical engineer working for Protei, said the firm had developed 14 prototypes of its sea-cleaning robots and was now interested in manufacturing them in China.