Introduction
The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) recently published new editions of the widely used Towhire, Towcon and Bargehire contract forms, which were last revised in 2008. The amendments are intended to improve legal clarity and bring the contracts more in line with current commercial practices.
Towhire is the industry standard ocean towage agreement, with remuneration calculated on a daily hire basis; Towcon is similar in nature but remuneration is calculated on a lump sum basis. Bargehire is the industry standard bareboat charterparty specifically designed for unmanned, non-self propelled seagoing barges.
Towhire and Towcon: 2021 edition
Both towage contracts have undergone revisions with the aim of making the contracts more user friendly, including rearranging the layout as well as amending certain principle terms, as discussed below. Towhire has also been as closely aligned to Towcon as possible.
The knock-for-knock liability regime has been amended and now includes definitions of “Hirer’s Group” and “Tugowner’s Group” which are similar to those in Supplytime.
The responsibility for any salvage costs has been allocated to the party whose property needs to be salved, which is consistent with the knock-for-knock regime.
To address cases where the tow is located inside a port area which may take several hours to reach, the forms now include a new definition of “Place of Connection”.
The clauses dealing with the hirer’s responsibility to pay for repair or replacement of damaged or lost towing gear have been amended to the hirer’s benefit – it is only towing gear that the tug has provided specifically for the services of which will be paid for by the hirer. The compensation will be calculated with due consideration of fair wear and tear of the damaged or lost towing gear.
Pursuant to the new clauses, the parties are now obliged to warrant that the tug and the tow are insured, with protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance equivalent to the cover provided by members of the International Group of P&I Clubs as the benchmark.
Clauses on daily reporting have also been included.
Clauses modelled on existing BIMCO standards have also been included, addressing infectious diseases, piracy, anti-corruption and sanctions, thus reducing the need for rider clauses.
One amendment made to only the Towcon form is free-time and delay payments, where a provision has been made for bunkering the tug during the voyage. To reduce the risk of disputes surrounding the calculation of compensation owed to the tug owner to cover delays due to slow steaming and deviation, there is now a box for the tug owner to state the estimated average towage speed, which can be used as basis for calculating the compensation for extra time.
To make Bargehire 2021 easier to understand and more user friendly, the clauses have been rearranged and some commonly found BIMCO clauses have been introduced.
The clauses dealing with survey, repair and redelivery have been given particular attention.
Other changes include a new and combined clause on ballasting operations and a default obligation on the charterers to take out P&I insurance.
While the uptake of new contract forms by the industry is often somewhat slow, in all likelihood, the 2021 editions of these contracts will become market standards.
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