Commenting on a recent arbitration award dealing with the hire period being fixed on the basis of redelivery notice periods in circumstances where a vessel is redelivered extremely early during the hire period (shortly after delivery into the C/P). In a situation where charterers redeliver a vessel to owners prior to expiry of the charter period, the general rule is that there has been a repudiation and the owner will have a choice whether to accept the repudiation (and claim damages) or to reject it and hold the charterers to the contract. This would at least apply where the hire period is simply described as a simple, stated period (e.g. "12 months"). In a recent arbitration award, the situation was slightly different insofar as the hire period was described as being without guarantee ("WOG") although the fact that the hire period was without guarantee proved to be without relevance for the outcome. The vessel was chartered for a time charter trip described as "ABT 20 days WOG", and it was further stipulated that charterers had to give owners "not less than 20 days' approximate and 10/5 days' definite notice of vessel's expected date of redelivery." It turned out that the trip in fact took only 20 days, and the owners took redelivery when this was tendered by charterers but did so under protest. The owners argued that charterers could not redeliver so early and withheld overpaid hire to cover the damages they considered they had suffered. The charterers reclaimed the overpaid hire in arbitration. The evidence in this particular case showed that the trip was shorter than anticipated because cargo operations proceeded far more rapidly than the charterers had expected. It was also concluded by the arbitrators that the original estimate of 20 days was an estimate made in  good faith  by charterers. The owners argued that the giving of "proper notices" of expected redelivery was a condition precedent to the charterers' right to redeliver the ship. T