Laycan and the cancelling date
Laydays and cancelling: the arrival window, the charterer's cancellation right, and the GENCON 2022 new ETA election.
Laycan is laydays and cancelling: the window within which the ship must arrive at the load port and tender a valid notice of readiness. The charterer need not begin loading before the first layday, and may cancel the charter if the ship has not tendered by the cancelling date.
The cancellation right is not a damages remedy and does not depend on fault: if the ship misses the cancelling date, the charterer may walk away whatever the reason for the delay. GENCON 2022 structures what follows a late ship by letting owners give a new expected time of arrival once, with charterers then electing to accept it or cancel. Under GENCON 1994 the new cancelling date was instead deemed to be the seventh day after the owner’s new readiness date, with no charterer election.
The full article will cover how the window is fixed and narrowed, the interpolation of a cancelling date into a period fixture, the owner’s duty to proceed with reasonable despatch on the approach voyage, and the interaction between cancellation and the notice of readiness.