Most time charterparty forms will not consider detention through hijacking by pirates as an
off-hire event and indeed Charterers have had limited success in negotiating amendments
or inserting additional off-hire clauses that would make piracy an event that exempts
Charterers from paying hire. A Charterers’ obligation to pay hire can be open ended (the
default position in most standard forms) or be limited to a specific number of days if clauses
like the BIMCO Piracy Clause for Time Charters is incorporated (in which case the period
that the vessel remains on hire is capped at 90 days). BIMCO has also published two clauses
for voyage charters which includes a clause for consecutive voyages where the Charterer is
liable for one half of the demurrage for the period of detention.