Voyage Chartering Charms.

Ina voyage or time charter the charterer charters the ship (or part ofit) for a particular voyage or for a set period of time. A voyagecharter is the hiring of a vessel and crew for a voyage between a load portand a discharge port. The charterer pays the vessel owner on aper-ton or lump-sum basis. The owner pays the port costs, fuel costsand crew costs. In these charters the charterer can direct where theship will go but the owner of the ship retains possession of the shipthrough its employment of the master and crew. Whereas in a bare-boator demise charter, the owner gives possession of the ship to thecharterer and the charterer hires its own master and crew. Chartering is an activity within the shipping industry. In some cases acharterer may own cargo and employ a ship broker to find a ship todeliver the cargo for a certain price, called freight rate. Freightrates may be on a per-ton basis over a certain route or alternativelymay be expressed in terms of a total sum - normally in U.S. dollars -per day for the agreed duration of the charter. Thereare hundreds of voyage charter brokers or agent companies. Thesecompanies offer yacht finding and travel organisation servicessimilar to travel agent only more specialized. Their purpose is touse their experience and networks to locate a client's ideal vesselin terms of price and location. A charterer may also be a party without a cargo who takes a vessel oncharter for a specified period from the owner and then trades theship to carry cargoes at a profit above the hire rate, or even makesa profit in a rising market by re-letting the ship out to other charterers . Depending on the type of ship and the type of charter,normally a standard contract form called a charter party is used torecord the exact rate, duration and terms agreed between theship-owner and the charterer. Therehas been increasing demand for voyage vacations. While both theinternational leisure travel industry (particularly outdooractivities based vacations) and the boating industry has both boomedin the last decade, so too has the voyage charter industry whichincorporates both of these pursuits. Ina voyage charter, the charterer hires the vessel for a single voyage,and the vessel's owner provides the master, crew, bunkers andsupplies. The voyage charter is a contract for the carriage ofa stated quantity and type of cargo, by a named vessel between namedports against an agreed price, called freight. It is the most widespread form of chartering. Several possibilities can occur, an entireship maybe chartered for the transport of a full cargo, for a welldetermined voyage, or for a voyage to go and return, or for a seriesof specific voyages, or for a round trip with different harbors andthe right for the charterer to load and discharge. Sometimes a partof the ship is chartered for the transport of a certain shipment orpart cargo. Ifthe ship is chartered entirely, this agreement will usually be notedby a charter party, although, under certain legislations, thisagreement may also be materialized by other means, even by testimony.Usually, under a voyage charter both the fixed costs and the variablecosts are at the expense of the ship owner. In the contract ofaffreightment it is clearly stipulated who must pay the cargohandling costs.

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