Whether in Port or Not (WIPON)

What it does

Whether in port or not, abbreviated WIPON, is wording that allows a notice of readiness to be tendered from a waiting place outside the legal or commercial limits of the port, rather than requiring the ship first to be within the port. It addresses the situation where congestion or local practice forces vessels to wait at an anchorage that lies beyond the port boundary, where a notice might otherwise be premature.

It is the outer-reaching companion to whether in berth or not: WIBON detaches the notice from reaching a berth, while WIPON detaches it from being inside the port at all. Together they push the point at which laytime can start as far out as the parties agree, which matters at ports where the customary waiting area is well offshore and ships can spend significant time there before formally arriving.

Commercial effect

WIPON shifts even more of the waiting risk to the charterer than WIBON alone, because it lets laytime begin while the ship waits outside the port. At ports where the designated anchorage is distant and waits are long, this can move a substantial block of time onto the charterer that would otherwise have been unpaid waiting borne by the owner before arrival.

Because it reaches furthest, WIPON is also the most contested of the arrival-shifting clauses, and its exact scope and the identity of the permitted waiting place are negotiated closely. The parties weigh it alongside the berth-or-port basis and any time-lost wording, since the combination determines precisely how far from the cargo the clock can start to run.

Owner's perspective

The owner seeks WIPON where the customary waiting place lies outside the port and a plain port or berth basis would leave the vessel waiting unpaid offshore. The clause lets the master tender notice from that waiting position, starting laytime at the earliest practical point and keeping the long offshore waits that some ports impose off the owner's account.

The owner wants the permitted waiting place defined clearly so that a notice from the usual anchorage cannot be challenged as premature. It also wants WIPON paired with the readiness conditions and, often, with WIBON, so that neither the absence of a berth nor the ship being outside the port can be used to argue the notice was invalid and the clock had not started.

Charterer's perspective

The charterer is most resistant to WIPON of all the arrival-shifting clauses, because it can start laytime while the vessel is still well offshore and far from any cargo operation. Accepting it at a congested port with a distant anchorage can expose the charterer to demurrage for very long waits that it has no practical way to shorten.

Where WIPON is unavoidable, the charterer tries to confine it to a specifically named waiting place and to require genuine readiness before the notice bites, so that the clock does not start from an arbitrary offshore position. It also checks the exposure against its onward contracts, since offshore waiting time charged to it may have no matching recovery further down the chain.

Negotiation points

• Whether WIPON is included, given it shifts offshore waiting risk to the charterer.
• The identity of the permitted waiting place from which a notice may be tendered.
• Whether WIPON is paired with WIBON and with readiness conditions for validity.
• How the offshore waiting exposure aligns with the charterer's onward contracts.

Common variations

• Plain whether in port or not, allowing tender from a waiting place outside the port.
• WIPON combined with WIBON to cover both being outside the port and lacking a berth.
• WIPON tied to a specifically named anchorage or waiting area.
• WIPON with readiness qualifications so the notice bites only on genuine readiness.