BIMCO’s Documentary Committee, at its meeting on 4 March, adopted revised versions of its two standard crew management agreements, CREWMAN A (Cost plus fee) and CREWMAN B (Lump sum). The forms, which were last updated 15 years ago, will soon be available for use in SmartCon accompanied by explanatory notes.
CREWMAN A and CREWMAN B are widely used in the industry, companions to the ship management agreement, SHIPMAN, which forms the basis for these crew management contract forms. Due to changes in ship management practices coupled with the need to include a significant number of freestanding BIMCO clauses as riders, a review of SHIPMAN 2009 was conducted last year and the revision of CREWMAN A and B was launched shortly after the publication of SHIPMAN 2024.
“We have been particularly mindful of the close relation between the ship and crew management agreements which is why the updated CREWMAN A and B forms are closely aligned with SHIPMAN 2024,” says Capt. Ajay Hazari, who leads the drafting team revising the third-party management agreements.
The revisions made in SHIPMAN 2024, logically amended, have been carried over as and where appropriate for the respective crew management services contract. The new CREWMAN A and B forms therefore now address predelivery crew management services, with a view to covering the work that crew managers begin performing before the date of commencement of the full scope of the crew management services, as well as owners’ access to crew data through the crew managers’ information system. Transfer of relevant crew management records to owners upon termination of the agreement is also covered and a number of BIMCO “boilerplate” provisions developed since the previous editions of the agreements were published in 2009 have been included.
“We know that many companies link use of CREWMAN A and B with SHIPMAN 2024 and wanted to ensure the availability of an up-to-date and aligned suite of ship and crew management agreements for the industry,” adds Hazari.
To inform users of the new features in the CREWMAN A and B 2025 agreements, as well as updates made to SHIPMAN 2024, BIMCO has organised two 180 Seminars planned for 19-20 March and 8-9 May. See our list of Training Courses for more information and to sign up.
Work to revise the remaining two agreements in BIMCO’s suite of third party management contracts, LAYUPMAN and SUPERMAN, will begin shortly.
Source: BIMCO Press Release