CHARTER PARTIES

Voyage Charter Party

Introduction

In a previous paragraph the definition of the voyage charter has already been given. The written confirmation of this form of chartering is called voyage charter party.

Every charter party is, in principle, established in accordance with a well defined traffic (goods and routes) so that a large number of different voyage charter parties can be encountered (see also Standard Charter Parties).

The printed text of all charter parties contains a number of basic clauses which are of the utmost importance for each agreement. Those common clauses, also called "basic elements" in the voyage charter agreement can be completed by particular clauses which come about during the negotiations of the contract and which are specific to a traffic. These particular clauses are called additional clauses.

A number of charter parties are not linked to a specific traffic and can be used for all types of cargoes and for any type of voyage. The most frequently used general voyage charter agreements, called Uniform General Charter Parties, are:

-     the "Uniform General Charter (as revised 1922, 1976 and 1994)", GENCON (box type) published by BIMCO;
-     the "Multi-Purpose Charterparty 1982", MULTIFORM, published by FONASBA;
-     the "Tanker Voyage Charterparty 1984", ASBA II, published by ASBA;
-     the "Tanker Voyage Charterparty" INTERTANKVOY 76 published by INTERTANKO

In the following paragraphs we will discuss in detail the common clauses of a GENCON charter party and of a worked-out GENCON charter party together with their additional clauses.

Other types of general charter parties are also in use and published either by Bimco or other Agencies. It is of course impossible to discuss all of them.

For more details see:

http://www.strategic.co.uk/product_form.htm
http://www.jseinc.org/en/document/vcp.html
http://www.jseinc.org/document/translation.html

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