The doctrine of practical and substantial readiness

By Dr Despoina Aspragkathou

The second requirement for the commencement of laytime is the readiness of the vessel to load or discharge. A ship is ready to load/discharge in the sense that shipowners can give a proper notice of readiness when she is available to the charterers, so that they can then use her. She must be available in the legal sense and in the physical sense. Readiness must exist at the time that the notice of readiness is tendered to the charterers by the shipowners ( Christensen v Hindustan Steel Ltd [1971] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 395). If she is not ready, the tendered notice is considered invalid and laytime does not commence.