Attendees from WNI

• Director of Weathernews : Con Carey
• Europe Account Manager : Scott Middleton
• Official Performance Auditing Manager : Satoru Ueno
• Voyage Planning Service Group Leader : Mitsuhiro Ogata

60 participants from the following organizations

• London Maritime Arbitrators
• Mediators
• Maritime lawyers for shipping companies
• Ship Operators
• Other Weather Forecast Companies

*WNI's Official Performance Auditing Service*

The main arbitration sites are London and New York, but 70% of 3000 cases per year are resolved by London arbitrators. Based on the outstanding value created by WNI's Official Performance Auditing Service, WNI has achieved a unique position of being the only company working closely in conjunction with and supporting the efforts of the LMAA. This completes the first step in establishing WNI as an authority on post-voyage charter party disputes and gives WNI a special appeal for the shipping industry.

The service that Weathernews provides for vessel charterers and owners is to assess ship performance of the voyage with regard to the speed and consumption stipulated in the charter party agreement. Based on arbitration standards our report includes the followings to assist the parties involved to make quick and fair settlements.

• 1. Good Weather Performance Evaluation
  • The vessel's performance in fair weather conditions stipulated in the charter party is analyzed by taking the average speed during good weather days and applying the appropriate current factor, unless otherwise stipulated.
• 2. Speed and Bunker Analysis
  • Good weather performance values are applied to calculate time loss/saving and fuel consuption (over/saving) in Speed and Bunker Analysis. “Allowed time” and “allowed consumption” calculated based on warranted speed and consumption in good weather days are taken into account in its analysis. Bunker calculation consists of over-consumption evaluation and fuel saving evaluation.
• 3. Logbooks description vs. Weathernews analysis
  • Master' weather description and distances are evaluated and compared with Weathernews analysis values. To verify those values weather charts are provided which incude other weather observations by nearby WMO vessels, satellites, sea buoys, and land observatories.

Other small weather routing companies provide reports which are not necessarily based on precedents accepted by maritime arbitrators, but simply tailored to give each client an advantage in their current dispute. These companies are disservice to the entire industry by diluting the veracity of information contained in voyage evaluation reports. Therefore we were very pleased to have been granted the opportunity to share our ideas with the international industry through this conference. We wish to sincerely thank the LMAA for this opportunity.