Current market conditions are increasingly leading to vessels spending long periods of time idling awaiting orders. In some cases this may lead to the growth of marine fouling on the hull and other underwater parts of the ship which affects the vessel’s performance. Under a time charter party, the responsibility for maintaining the vessel’s underwater parts normally falls to the owner as part of his vessel maintenance obligations. While this allocation of responsibility is fair under normal operating conditions with relatively short turnarounds in port, it is less fair when time charterers order the vessel to remain at a place for prolonged periods.
To address this situation BIMCO has drafted a new time charter clause that specifically deals with hull fouling and its consequences. The Hull Fouling Clause will be reviewed by the Documentary Committee in November and, if adopted, published shortly afterwards.
To strike a balance between owners’ usual maintenance obligations under a time charter and the situation where a prolonged stay is ordered by charterers, the Clause only takes effect after an agreed period of idling has lapsed. This “trigger” is set at 15 days if the vessel is in tropical waters and 25 days if in non-tropical waters (although the parties can agree an alternative number of days if they wish). The 15 days in tropical waters is consistent with warranty periods for marine coatings commonly given by paint manufacturers.
Once the Clause is triggered, relevant performance warranties become suspended and the need for inspection and cleaning is assessed accordingly. Often partial cleaning will suffice, for instance cleaning of the vessel’s propeller and/or sea chests, and this practice has been reflected in the provisions. Furthermore, the Clause sets out clear guidelines with regards to the cleaning operations, and should it be the case that suitable cleaning facilities are not available where the vessel has been sitting, cleaning can easily be postponed till the next convenient port.
Since re-delivery of a fouled vessel could cause problems for the owners in relation to future employments, necessary cleaning is required to be carried out before redelivery. However, cleaning may not be allowed in certain areas due to local restrictions and environmental concerns, and deviating to a different area where cleaning would be offered is not always an option. The Clause takes this situation into account by placing an obligation on the parties to agree to a lump sum figure to cover cleaning and all related costs, if cleaning before redelivery has not been feasible.
Source: BIMCO