ARTICLE 7

7.1. The ship master shall give notice of readiness within officially established in the port office hours upon completion of customs formalities and receiving a grant of free pratique (and also after completion of discharging of a ship if she is to be loaded then).

By the commencement of loading the ship's cargo spaces shall have been fully cleaned and equipped with facilities necessary for loading of a particular cargo, in accordance with the notice.

The ship is considered to be ready for loading bulk cargoes if:

• there is a clear load mark on the stem and stern frame and easily readable midship draft numerals, which permit to determine the amount of loaded cargo by the draft;
• there is no ballast water or the filling of ballast tanks can be performed by ship's facilities without interference with the process of loading;
• the holds are ready to be loaded with particular cargo.

A notice of readiness will be accepted only if the ship is actually ready for loading the particular cargo into or discharging it from all her holds to be used in the particular port, and if a complete set of cargo documents is available.

In necessary cases the readiness of the holds for loading/discharging is to be confirmed by a corresponding Inspection (Committee). The port's representative shall make a corresponding note in the ship master’s notice not later than 30 minutes after the notice is received and indicate the, commencement of the lay time count.