A Voyage C/P provided that loading laytime was to cease from 1700 hours before until 0800 after a “public holiday”. Owners disputed the interruption of laytime at Paranagua for the “Corpus Christi” holiday on the grounds that it did not appear in the BIMCO calendar. The Tribunal found that the BIMCO calendar was not definitive on the point and accepted instead Charterers’ evidence (from the Brazilian Embassy in London website) that Corpus Christi was one of the public holidays observed throughout Brazil.

In a T/C dispute involving a laden passage from Venezuela to Italy, Charterers alleged ‘unreported’ voyages near the load port and Gibraltar, misrepresentations (BOD and consumption) and underperformance, and deducted from hire. The Tribunal found disclosure failings: Owners’ logs were variously illegible or incomplete, the oil record book was withheld; Charterers did not volunteer their contemporaneous weather routing report, relying instead on a reconstruction by their expert. Nevertheless, the Tribunal found that Master’s noon reports were not ‘wildly’ inaccurate, and neither the contemporaneous evidence nor Charterers’ expert evidence supported any of their allegations. Owners’ hire claim succeeded, and Charterers’ cross claim failed, each in full.

Charterers under an NYPE T/C, challenged the delivery time specified by Owners, stating that the AIS had been turned off some 442 nm away and the Vessel could not have covered that distance in the intervening period. Owners’ argument that the Vessel speeded up was rejected as the logs produced in support were unconvincing (all in the same hand, allegedly produced from memory without aid of rough logs). Charterers failed however on their performance claim by not meeting a provision requiring their evaluation to be submitted latest 15 days after the passage in question.

A T/C provided that Charterers were to redeliver the Vessel with “about” the same quantities of bunkers as on delivery and “should…difference….exceed 5%, Charterers shall compensate Owners losses …”.Charterers redelivered with some 13% less FO and 50% less MGO than on delivery.  The Owners claimed as damages the market rates for the entire shortfalls, contending that the 5% allowance was not applicable if exceeded. The Tribunal held that within 5% gave rise to no breach and only awarded damages for the net shortfalls.

Arbitrators rejected Time Charterers’ Weather Routing Company (WRC) performance analysis as it departed from the C/P parameters including as to swell and significant wave height (attributing 2m to DSS3) and failed to recognise routine navigational alterations, casting doubt on reliability generally. However, they found Owners in breach due to Vessel’s hull and propeller fouling, affecting performance and entitling Charterers to deduct for damages (albeit in a lesser amount than pursuant to their WRC analysis).

Under a T/C, delays in berthing followed the Vessel’s grounding at her Mississippi River anchorage. With no berthing prospects in sight, and fearing another grounding, (but against advice of the local Pilots association), the Master shifted the Vessel to a 2nd anchorage where, as warned against, the Vessel swung 360◦ requiring her anchors to be disentangled with tug and pilot assistance. The Tribunal found (i) that although the first anchorage was safe for the Vessel, Charterers were nonetheless in breach of their ‘always afloat’ warranty and (ii) the Master’s choice was not unreasonable but the 2nd anchorage was unsafe, placing Charterers in breach of their warranty. Owners’ claims for the costs of re-floating, shifting, re-anchoring and disentangling the anchors succeeded, as did their claim for withheld hire during the delayed berthing (even that part of the delay caused by the Master’s late action to disentangle anchors).