QUEEN'S HARBOUR MASTER PORTSMOUTH

LOCAL NOTICE TO MARINERS

No 02/04

Reissue 02/04 Vessels Constrained By Their Draught

1. Mariners are advised that many warships and merchant vessels (including ferries) operating within the Dockyard Port of Portsmouth and the Port of Southampton are at various times “vessels constrained by their draught or vessels who can safely navigate only within a narrow channel or fairway.”
2. Save for the exception at Paragraph 3 below these vessels, when so constrained, are all to show the signals prescribed in Rule 28 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea , i.e. three all-round red lights in a vertical line, or a cylinder, in order to be afforded the privileges of Rules 8(f)(i) and (ii) (Actions to avoid collision), 9 (Narrow channels) and/or 18(d)(i) (Responsibilities between vessels when one is constrained by draught).
3. Submarines operating on the surface within the Dockyard Port of Portsmouth and the Port of Southampton are to be considered vessels who can safely navigate only within a narrow channel or fairway in accordance with Rule 9 (Narrow Channel) even when not showing the signals prescribed in Rule 28.
4. If the masters or skippers of vessels under 20m in length, sailing vessels or crossing vessels are in any doubt as to whether a particular vessel is indeed a vessel which can safely navigate only within a narrow channel or fairway or a vessel constrained by its draught, then they are always to give it the benefit of the doubt and treat it as such.
5. This Local Notice to Mariners is issued jointly by the Queen's Harbour Master Portsmouth and The Harbour Master ABP Southampton.
6. Cancel QHM Portsmouth LNTM 28/03

Fri 16th Nov 2007 Semaphore Tower HM Naval Base, Portsmouth.

S O Hopper Commander Royal Navy Queen's Harbour Master