Laytime Definitions for Charter Parties 2013
The BIMCO, CMI, FONASBA and INTERCARGO laytime code of 33 definitions, and why it binds only where expressly incorporated.
The Laytime Definitions for Charter Parties 2013 are a code of 33 definitions jointly issued by BIMCO, the Comite Maritime International, FONASBA and INTERCARGO, and published by FONASBA under the alternative name VOYLAYRULES 2013. They are the reference text behind almost every laytime abbreviation a chartering desk writes into a recap.
Two features of the preamble decide most arguments about them. The definitions apply for the purposes of laytime only, and they apply only where they are expressly incorporated into the charter party. They are not default law and they do not fill gaps by implication, which is why the same recap wording produces different results on GENCON 2022, which incorporates them, and on GENCON 1994, which predates them.
The full article will set out all 33 definitions with their operative wording, the pro-rata weather working day mechanism, the reversible and averaging distinction, the waiting-place clauses, the abbreviations the code deliberately leaves undefined, and the incorporation wording that brings the code into a fixture.