BOW WAVE 120

Wavelength Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 120 11 Mar 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Jim Mulrenan on Wavelength for Ports and Terminals
3. Paction Contract Builder
4. Port of Djibouti Chemical Spill
5. Rogue Waves: Call for Help
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

A kind invitation from Peter Taylor of Insurance Solutions (ISL) took your editor to a rather fine lunchtime gathering in London to meet some of the people involved and to listen to a short presentation on African events and prospects. All in all an engaging set of individuals who meet monthly and swap views. It was also a pleasure to meet so many Readers for the first time.

See the ISL Site at:

http://www.insurancesolutions.co.uk/

New Readers this week include:

Joseph Ludwiczak General Secretary of the Liberian Shipowners' Council Broker Patrick Muls of Marsh in Antwerp
Roel de Ligt in Holland
A.J. Siciliano, President,Sentry Marine Services Inc East Asia Editor Matthew Flynn returning to HK from Japan for Lloyd's List Ntinos (Dino) Karaiskos
Zoe Heron of the BBC

Seen this week in London, on his rounds of the P&I Clubs, the San Franciscan maritime lawyer Jim Tamulski in whose office, then of Graham & James, your editor in 1990 first saw a real live voice mail system in action. He is in good heart and the hours slipped past quickly catching up on the news in the capital city of the future. Kind Regards to Readers there.

A very decent issue this week. Many thanks to our talented contributers.

Enjoy

2. Jim Mulrenan on Wavelength for Ports and Terminals

Jim Mulrenan, the insurance writer for Tradewinds rather pre-empted our plans by reporting in last Friday's paper as follows:-

" Wavelength to give TT Club a run for its portside business

A long-awaited new marine-insurance scheme that could be a major competitor to the Through Transport Mutual Insurance Association (TT Club) is likely to be launched next week. A consortium of Lloyd's of London underwriters and protection-and-indemnity (P&I) club manager Charles Taylor have agreed to establish Wavelength, a venture that will provide $100m of property, liability and business-interruption cover for ports and terminals. TradeWinds understands that Wavelength's underwriting will be led by the XL Brockbank and Limit syndicates at Lloyd's, with about half a dozen other insurers also participating. Charles Taylor, managers of the top-rated Standard Steamship Owners' Protection and Indemnity Association, will be responsible for administering the business. Charles Taylor has been working on a plan to establish Wavelength since recruiting high-profile TT Club manager Sam Ignarski following a split with the mutual's manager Thomas Miller back in 1999. Details of Wavelength are still confidential but TradeWinds understands deals are now in place for an immediate launch. Although Wavelength will not insure ships and will have a narrower focus than the TT Club, the market segment it is chasing is very substantial, with considerable prospects created by other underwriters quitting the business. "There is a window of opportunity for Wavelength to establish a strong competitive position," market sources told TradeWinds. High-profile departures from the sector include a scheme run by Peter Rogers out of Ipswich in the UK for the Allianz AGFMAT group, a scheme run by Intercargo out of Chicago and Transport Management Europe, originally associated with the failed Ocean Marine Mutual P&I club. The TT Club, run by Thomas Miller, who are also managers of the UK P&I Club, is the market leader across a wide range of through-transport risks. The club, set up 30 years ago at the dawn of containerisation, sought a hefty 20% increase at its January renewal following underwriting losses of $50m over the last three years and is in the process of converting to a fixed-premium underwriter. London stock exchange-quoted Charles Taylor, along with the West of England Club and the UK Club, established the TT Club to cover risks associated with the conversion to containerisation that were regarded as unacceptable by traditional P&I clubs. Now, however, the TT Club is fully managed by Thomas Miller. Charles Taylor is already involved in the port sector through management of the highly successful Signal Mutual Indemnity Association, which provides liability cover for employers of US longshoremen. The company, which made an abortive bid for top shipbroker Clarkson a few years ago, has a business portfolio that includes several other mutuals. It owns Richards Hogg Lindley, the world's biggest average adjuster."

Readers of Bow Wave will be hearing more about this new product for the Waterfront in subsequent editions. If you would like to know more, send an enquiry to:

wavelengthinfo@ctcplc.com

3. Paction Contract Builders

Our old pal Ake Nilson of Allagraf has written in with details of his latest invention:

It is called Paction, a web based application which allows a buyer and a seller to prepare, negotiate and complete contracts for the international sale and purchase of goods online.
Paction has been designed with the smaller trader, perhaps new to international trade, in mind. But larger companies and already experienced international traders can also benefit from the application using the short cuts.

The contracts produced by the application are based on the International Chamber of Commerce's model international sale contract, which provides a clear and concise set of conditions, balancing the interests of buyers and sellers. Paction delivers concise contracts, including only those clauses appropriate for the transaction contemplated, but always consistent with the terms developed over many years by the ICC's expert panels.

In addition, the application provides workflow control to keep the exchange of offers and counter-offers in synch. For each revision, the trading partners can see the amendments redlined on screen, and all previous drafts of the contract are available for easy reference. Once the final contract is agreed, the parties can sign online - using a digital signature if they have the capability - or print the contract out and sign in ink.
Have a look at:

http://www.modelcontracts.com.

4. Port of Djibouti Chemical Spill

Reader Lee Coppack,the writer on catastrophic incidents has drawn our attention to a report of an unpleasant spill in the port of Djibouti issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The first situation report issued from the place explains how a small mess turned into a big one. The UN people in place are describing it as an environmental disastor.

Ten shipping containers loaded with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) were received at the Port of Djibouti by ship in November 2001. CCA is used as wood preservative. It is highly corrosive and toxic.

The containers were found to be leaking and were more or less put aside in a leaking container area. More leaking containers containing the same substance were discovered in the free areas and also sort of put to one side. Rain, further leaks and inadequate isolation of the problem have generated a major contamination of five port areas and hospitals are seeing people affected by it. .
According to the report, the next phase may consist of isolating toxic materials and treating contaminated soil. The cost of the second phase is estimated at approx.USD 800,000 and International assistance is required because of the lack of expertise and the absence of the necessary financial resources. The agency concerned seems to be appealing for help.

The report is accessible at:

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf

5. Rogue Waves: Call for Help

Zoe Heron, the producer of the BBC science programme Horizon has written in as follows:

"I am producing a film on the science of rogue waves for the BBC. I am looking for examples of ships that have been hit by the rare phenomenon of the rogue wave. I wondered if it might be possible to put a request for stories in the next edition of Bow Wave?"

Readers of Bow Wave who can help should contact Ms Heron at:

zoe.heron@bbc.co.uk

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to broker Graham Barnes for this placing slip:

TYPE: CYNICAL RISKS CO-ASSUREDS:
In the bunker shaft of Hades,
One sultry summer night,
A Shipping Banker and a vessel owner
shovelled anthracite.
"I do not see," the former groaned,
"Why I should labour here,
Although to me the justice
Of your plight is very clear.
You sent a rotten coaster
Built in eighteen-eighty-three,
To crack her ribs and drown her crew
Beneath a wintry sea."
"You may be right", the owner said,
But now I think upon it,
If it hadn't been for you, my friend,
I never could have done it."
VESSEL: The steamer Sally Chion
Was built in forty one
By a drunken Greek in Sounion
Whose eyesight was nearly gone.
Her timbers are of worm-holes
Held together by the paint,
And her boiler is a hollow place
Where tubes once were, but ain't.
But daily, to her owners
She grows stauncher, trimmer, tighter,
And her brokers sell her every year
To a different underwriter.
PERIOD: During a Shipping Recession.
INTEREST:"She's your command, Skipper", the Owner says to me, "For better or worse, you're boss of this hearse As soon as she puts to sea.
Use your own judgement, Skipper-hold her well off the coast Keep a true log-heave to in the fog
Safety first is our boast."
Slave to a berth and tradition, I listen and bow my head, But the orders I hear with my inner ear
Are the ones that are left unsaid.
"The rust-bucket's insured, Skipper-get her out and in. Our sailing dates and cargo rates
Mean twelve knots-thick or thin.
From hear to there is our motto. To hell with the wind and the tide.
You make those joints by cutting the points- Not by playin' 'em wide.
So use your own judgement, Skipper, but think of the penalty. There's better captains than you on the beach We know where they are-they'd be easy to reach," The Owner whispers to me.
CONDITIONS:I'm a section of a derelict
The chassis of a tree,
And maritime disasters
Are attributed to me.
I lurk within the twilight zone
Where fog and water blend,
The underwriter's nightmare
And the owner's bosom friend.
That I'm versatile and clever
All adjusters will attest,
For when I am not there at all
My work is at its best.
My ghostly fingers search a ship
From keel to funnel-stays
A crackin' shafts and boiler tubes
And wreckin' waterways.
Though no one ever sees me,
I am sure to get the blame
When these things are added up to make
A fat insurance claim,
For I'm just a Floating Object
But the lawyers all agree
That I have the legal status
Of a Peril of The Sea.
CLASS WARRANTIES:'He who pays the piper calls the tune', a shipowner declares to his class surveyor. 'Your appointment plus your fees are opportune for you to be my ship's saviour
in certifying her class by this fore-noon'. Conflicting interests jar within the surveyor, the condition of this ship may not be a-tune to expectations of insurers or any port inspector 'But just to ensure the certificate soon what, in addition, would be your persuader?' UNDERWRITING SECURITY:My ownership's precarious
At most 'tis but vicarious,
Though many people try their best to sell these things to me- Of their ways and means nefarious
I cautious am, and wary, as
I seldom buy things outright till they're sunk beneath the sea. REINSURER:Name the poor benighted clown
Who, when all the chips are down,
Has every lousy risk in town,
And who, when comes the fatal dawn
When faith is dead and hope is gone,
Must "pay as may be paid hereon"?
The poor old reinsurer.
PREMIUM:I have studied all the clauses of my hull policy And there comes into my mind a growing doubt, For the very things the underwriter ought to guarantee Seem to be the things I'm warranted without. There is a happy indecision as to what is covered When my ship is sunk or injured in a crash, But one thing's set to catch the eye in the glaring letters Plain and high,
The premium is payable in cash.
I can't quite get it clear about these perils of the sea, Or exactly what is meant by F.P.A.,
Or why they have to mention barratry and later say That scuttlings a thing for which they cannot pay. But when I'm worn and troubled as to what these phrases are And I fear I'll never, never understand, One item shines afar like a bright and guiding star - The premium's due and owing on demand.
ASSIGNMENT:Notice of Assignment endorsed and attached hereto in favour of those it may amuse.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 6800 readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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