London Arbitration 10/00

Vessel spending extensive time at loading port - Owners knowing of risk of hull fouling which might reduce vessel’s performance - Owners refusing charterers’ requests to have undersides surveyed and cleaned at charterers’ expense before leaving load port - Vessel suffering from hull fouling which resulted in slow prosecution of voyage to discharge port - Charterers claiming loss and damage arising from delayed arrival at discharge port due to hull fouling - Whether owners in breach of charter

The vessel was chartered on the Synacomex form for the carriage of a cargo of agricultural products from Paranagua to Europe. The vessel arrived off Paranagua on 3 April. Notice of readiness was tendered the same day. However, congestion prevented the vessel from berthing until 11 May. On 21 April, some two and a half weeks after the vessel had arrived at Paranagua, the charterers informed the owners that almost all vessels were ‘having hull/rudder/chests/propeller fouled and some heavily covered with marine growth which no doubt we believe to be due to stay in Paranagua outer roads’ and that the speed performance of most of the vessels had reduced by about 3 or 4 knots, which meant that the vessels had to stop for cleaning at Las Palmas/Tenerife on their trips to Europe. The charterers urged the owners to have the chests/rudder and propellers cleaned at Paranagua in order to avoid speed/performance claims. The charterers also asked to carry out an underwater survey of the vessel at their own expense to check on the condition of the hull. They said that they would pay for any cleaning required. The owners declined both requests.