The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Energy are sponsoring an at-sea test of a large-scale shelf-mounted OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) cold water pipe. This paper describes the objectives of the program and the experimental design developed for the 8-foot diameter test article deployed on a 40-degree slope offshore of Keahole Point, Hawaii. The April 1984 deployment operation and plans for analyzing experimental data are discussed.