Protective Contracting

The ship you’ve chartered is damaged by a submerged anchor entering port; a gale blows a crane over; stevedores that you’ve hired accidentally damage a ship… When disaster strikes, someone has to pay and the contracts (Charter Parties) developed by the ship owning community over hundreds of years are not designed to protect your interests! That is why we have developed a proprietary Charter Party that’s designed to be a bulwark against risk. Chartering will always include risks, but with Polaris’s help, you can minimize them and clearly understand the risks you are taking. 

Not Trading on Mainterms

Given how much risk can ride on the details of Charter Party negotiations, we insist on agreeing on the details of the Charter Party at the beginning, not the end of negotiations.

Many brokers will encourage you to negotiate charters “on mainterms.” This means that the basic details, tonnage, dates, price, etc., are discussed first with other details to follow.  Unfortunately, when you follow this advice, you will often find yourself in a limbo where you are not sure whether you are or are not committed.  At a certain point, if it’s too late to easily break off negotiations and switch to a different ship, you may feel rushed or pressured to accept onerous terms.  Even worse.

That is why we consider negotiating on mainterms to be putting the cart before the horse.  Our approach is to tailor our proprietary Charter Party to the voyage in question and to make it part of all inquiries.  We insist that shipowners who want to negotiate start by reading that Charter Party and making their offer based on it, with all exceptions spelled out. Difficult decisions about what compromises to accept still arise, but they arise at an earlier stage and can be considered with more time and while there are still more options on the table.

Laytime Optimization

Charter Parties contain terms that make charterers responsible for time taken to load and discharge cargo with penalties (“demurrage”) for failure to load or discharge in the allowed time. The terms governing what time to count and the calculations of time used are complicated and technical, but critical to avoidance of unnecessary costs.  In addition to our highly protective Charter Party, Polaris has decades of experience in ensuring that the eventual settlement with Owners is as Charterer-friendly as possible.

Legal Expertise

Polaris has decades of experience in the highly technical maritime law environment. We maintain relationships with U.S. and international maritime attorneys who are ready to jump in as needed and we stay fully up to date by reviewing all published arbitration and appeals cases as they arise so that we can minimize your legal risks and successfully navigate potential problems to assure you of the best possible outcomes.