WQW congratulate Ed Woollam on his appointment as a lecturer at the new London School of Shipping evening school in their Ship Finance and Ship Sale & Purchase modules. Ed comments “I am very glad to be involved with this new educational venture launched by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. 2019 promises to be an interesting and turbulent year for the UK marine industries and supporting professional education in the sector has never been more important.” Please click he

It’s not often that I end up reading US appeal Court judgments, but there was an article in the Law Society Gazette last month which caught my eye and I couldn’t help myself. Glad I did, too, as the judgment raised some interesting points which are worth bringing up as we do come across similar issues every now and again. The case itself, Internaves de Mexico S.A. de C.V. -v- Andromeda Steamship Corporation (& ors), was heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Elev

“…do not be car­ried away by suc­cess into demand­ing more than is right or pru­dent.” Winston Churchill 1919 On the 15th of November the UK Ship Register announced that the UK flag was, by gross tonnage, now the 14th largest in the world with its tonnage having increased by more than 6 per cent in the year to that date to over 16 million GT. Perhaps even more encouraging was the evident quality of the ships on the register with 85% of internationally trading vessels over 500

Picture this scenario – you charter a cruise ship. It’s all going well, so you decide to extend the charter period by a further 2 years, but you have a change of heart and tell the owners that you won’t be taking the ship for the extended period after all. The owners, unsurprisingly, take issue with this. They call you up on it holding you in breach and they then accept that breach as terminating the charter party. You then re-deliver the ship to the owners, and in the meanti

On 9th May 2017, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency published the result of its consultation on a new Code for High Speed Offshore Service Craft (HS-OSC) with a revised Code. This Code applies to vessels under 500GT carrying less than 60 persons and is intended to provide equivalency to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 (SOLAS) requirements in terms of personnel safety, ship construction, equipment and operation for, primarily, vessels operating as

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV In December last year, KPMG delivered to the Department for Transport the report the ministry had commissioned on the future of the UK Ship Register. In brief KPMG recommended a “part-privatisation” of the Register by spinning it out into a “Govco”, i.e. a privately held state-owned company which though subject

It is not often that the venerable New York Times reports on marine matters relating to the coast of Britain. In its issue of 2 December 2016, the Times reports on the US$40m fine to be paid by Princess Cruise Lines after it pleaded guilty to a number of felony charges following the dumping by employees of oiled waste. In a statement issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, it was reported that employees of the “CARIBBEAN PRINCESS” used sever

It has become fairly commonplace in the yachting industry to see letters of intent being used to “secure” a deal, or an exclusivity period to negotiate a particular transaction for example, particularly with an impending boat show or some other event on the horizon or – as has recently perhaps been seen with the value of the Pound dropping so significantly as against, predominantly, the Euro and the US Dollar – in response to a particular event. The common understanding in su

WQW is pleased to announce that they have assisted Nekton Foundation with legal advice on marine-related contracting for the Nekton Mission, an oceanic science project in the deep waters of the Northwest Atlantic. See here for more information on the project. The work included advising on bespoke contracts for vessel and ROV availability. WQW congratulates Nekton Foundation on the successful mission with the greater scientific understanding of the deep ocean environment that

WQW are pleased to have acted again for client Dalby Offshore on the refinancing by Lombard of five vessels in the Dalby fleet. The transaction was completed in record time and WQW would like to thank all parties involved for their pro-activity and practicality. #commercialvessels #industrynews #boutiquelawfirm