AWT Weather Routing/Routeing: Applied Weather Technology

No Good Weather

by Jim Sigafoose

Charter Party speed and consumption warranties will nearly always be qualified as applying only to periods of a particular set of environmental conditions which define ‘good weather’. At a recent workshop on Shipping Operational Disputes in Beijing, hosted by AWT, the following question was posed to the assembled panel which included experienced London arbitrators and legal experts in maritime issues:

“In the case of good weather conditions being well-defined in the Charter Party agreement, but it occurs that during the voyage there are no good weather conditions as defined, is there then no obligation on the owners to conform to any level of speed and consumption?”

In many circumstances it would indeed be the case that no claim for a breach of the Charter Party terms could be made, as there would be no measure available to determine this.

However, the panelists expressed caution that this would not necessarily always be the case; and that arbitrators would look at what is reasonable. For example, if a vessel was described at a particular speed in good weather, but demonstrated a speed significantly less than that in conditions which exceeded the good weather criteria by only a minor amount, it would be clear that there was a problem. It could be challenging to the arbitrators, but they would attempt to find a fair resolution to the problem. A claim would not automatically be dismissed on the argument that no good weather was encountered; and the evidence and complaints in the case would be examined to determine what is reasonable.

It was also mentioned that since a speed and consumption warranty will apply at the time of the charter fixture, a claim would be justified if it could be established that the vessel was unable to perform when delivered. This might be accomplished by obtaining evidence from a voyage prior to the vessel’s delivery. Or if it could be shown that there was some defect of machinery or that the owners failed to properly maintain the vessel, then a claim might be justified under an off hire provision. It was concluded that in those circumstances the owners could not escape their performance obligations even though there may be no contractual “good weather days.”

Many other issues and topics were discussed by the panelists and more than one hundred attendees of AWT’s first workshop on Shipping Operational Disputes in Beijing. No doubt you will be hearing more about them in future issues of this newsletter.