Club Warns

Protection from Unpaid Bunker Claims

GT North of England P&I club has warned its shipowner members to protect themselves from the increasing risk of claims for charterers’ unpaid bunkers. The advice comes in the latest issue of the club’s loss-prevention newsletter Signals. According to Mark Robinson of the club’s freight, demurrage and defence department, “The recent downturn in the shipping markets and the world economy has unfortunately led to some charterers going out of business. One consequence is that a number of bunker suppliers, who contracted with these charterers to supply fuel to time-chartered ships, have been left unpaid – and they are now turning their attention to the ships’ owners.” North said that even though the obligation to provide and pay for fuel under a time charterer rests with the defaulting charterer, and that the owner is not a party to the bunker supply contract, owners and their ships are vulnerable to action in many jurisdictions. “A notable example is the USA, where a supplier of ‘necessaries’ to a ship, which includes bunkers, may have a lien over the ship itself and therefore the ability to take action against the owner to recover the charterer’s debt,” said Robinson. Furthermore the club warns owners they cannot assume they are protected by charterparties such as NYPE, which contain provisions specifically prohibiting charterers from creating liens over their ships.

P&I Club Warns of Using Crew in Unfamiliar Roles

The North of England P&I club says that unfamiliar tasks imposed on ships' crews are leading to more personal-injury accidents occurring on board. In the latest issue of its loss-prevention newsletter 'Signals', the 50 million GT club says that additional duties - particularly those on deck - are being carried out by inadequately trained crewmembers from places such as the galley and the engine room. 'We have experienced a number of recent cases in which members of both the catering

TT Club Urges Quay Crane Anti-Collision Systems

The TT Club is urging container terminal operators to fit electronic sensor devices to quay crane booms to prevent them accidentally colliding with vessels during loading and unloading operations in port. The TT Club says that crane booms colliding with the structure or equipment of a ship is an all-to-common occurrence at almost every port around the world, causing serious injuries to workers and costly repairs and operational downtime.

London Club achieves premium income targets

THE London P&I Club achieved its premium income targets during the renewal negotiations completed on February 20 this year. It now has a total fleet entry of more than 30 million gross tons, covering all categories of membership. Major new entries in the Club included fourteen bulk carriers operated by Petros Pappas' Sentinel Marine Services in Greece. Also, existing members - including the Schuldt Group, V Ships, Cosco Hong Kong, and MISC - entered

London Club Warns of Over-Reliance on GPS

The London P&I Club said a recent casualty involving a containership serves as a timely reminder of the consequences of failing to check navigation charts for information about corrections that need to be applied to satellite-derived positions.   In the latest issue of its StopLoss Bulletin, the Club refers to an incident in which a containership grounded as a result of total reliance on GPS, coupled with a failure to recognise that a significant correction had to be applied to GPS

Technology Can Cause Costly Distractions

THE London P&I Club has warned that improvements in telecommunications technology on board ships can create unwelcome distractions, leading to casualties.  In its StopLoss Bulletin, the club notes that an alleged causative factor in a recent pollution incident involved the duty officer attempting to make a Skype call on his laptop during his watch. A VDR playback revealed that the officer of the watch (OOW) was listening to a news bulletin from his home country which was being

London Club Confirms General Increase

The London Club has announced a general increase of 25 percent in its advance call for the 2003/04 policy year. Meanwhile, the Club has also confirmed that supplementary calls for all open underwriting years remain unchanged. Paul Hinton, Chief Executive of the Club's managers, A Bilbrough & Co, says, "The almost unprecedented failure in the last three years of the investment markets to produce budgeted returns means that a substantial upward

London Club Achieves Income Targets

The London P&I Club achieved its premium income targets during the renewal negotiations completed on February 20. It now has a total fleet entry of more than 30 million gross tons, covering all categories of membership. Major new entries in the Club included fourteen bulk carriers operated by Petros Pappas' Sentinel Marine Services in Greece. Also, existing members - including the Schuldt Group, V Ships, Cosco Hong Kong, and MISC - entered additional vessels with the Club.

Newbuilding Splurge Boosts London Club

The London P&I Club says the increasing amount of new tonnage being ordered by its members, and entered with the Club for P&I and FD&D risks, is confirmation of the current healthy state of the shipping industry, as well as being good news for the Club itself. Twenty-five per cent of the vessels entered with the London Club during the last twelve months have been newbuildings. Many of these have been entered by shipowners who have not previously bought new tonnage

Ensuring There are No Hiding Places for Stowaways

The problem of stowaways hiding in a ship’s rudder stock recess, especially at African ports, still persists, the American Club has warned its members. They are urged to take proper precautions to prevent stowaways from boarding and hiding themselves in this manner. The club first alerted its members to this practice in April 2004.   The cunning stowaways wait in port areas until after dark and then swim to the rudder stock, climb it and hide inside the recess