Emergency Contact Contracting themes in offshore wind charters Home Latest updates News Contracting themes in offshore wind charters 24 Apr 2023 Download Sign up for alerts As part of the service provided to Members, the Club receives many contracts for review. With a global push to develop renewable energy sources, we have seen a rise in the number of contracts for provision of services within offshore windfarms – whether that be during construction or as part of the ongoing maintenance and servicing of the fields. Whilst there are common themes amongst all offshore contracts, we have found that contracts such as WINDTIME in particular are drafted to be narrow in scope and remove boilerplate clauses , such as Clause Paramount or New Jason clauses, which are often not applicable to the works. This removal of superfluous clauses does not however reduce the complexity of the contract and through the Club’s review of offshore wind contracts, we have identified several common industry-specific clauses. This article summarises those shared clauses and provides commentary on why they may be so prevalent. Vessel capability The installation and management of offshore wind farms are complex operations and entire programmes are often based on the availability of specialist vessels or equipment. It is therefore unsurprising that there is greater emphasis placed on the technical specifications of the vessel and its compliance with those specifications throughout the life of the charterparty. Tenders often specify strict age and design requirements for vessels to be chartered. In-depth technical specifications of the chartered vessel are almost always included as an Annex to the charterparty and its common for there to be a specific requirement for compliance with the Annex throughout the standard form contracts. We have observed instances where the standard off-hire clause is amended so that where there is non-compliance with the specifications set out in the charterparty, incl