Bulgaria’s Varna Radio navigational-warning broadcast, still carried on the official VTMIS weather-and-warning page on Thursday morning, prints NAVWARN 766/26 as the working keep-clear on the capsized Khoryv east of Shabla. The working primary is: NAVWARN 766/26 EAST OF SHABLA. AT 1800 UTC ON 28 OCT 2026, IN POSITION: 43-30.60 N 028-43.69 E M/V “KHORYV” (IMO: 8138712) WAS SIGHTED CAPSIZED, SEMI-SUBMERGED, DRIFTING, WITHOUT CREW AND LIGHTS. REPRESEND A NAVIGATIONAL DANGER. MARINERS TO NAVIGATE WITH INCREASED CAUTION AND TO KEEP SAFETY DISTANCE OF 5 CABLES FROM THE VESSEL. That is the product. It names the hull, it names the IMO number, it names a new plot, it names the hull as unmanned and unlit, and it sets a five-cable — one-half nautical mile — keep-clear. It does not print a wreck buoy, a light, a sinking time, a pollution line, a cargo, a bunker figure, or an attacker. It does not reprint the three-missing count. It does not close the search.
That is the numbered Bulgarian hydrographic instrument Tuesday’s dedicated ARN 158/2026 piece on this desk said had not yet been printed, and that Wednesday’s unused list held for a later run. It is not a second Khoryv attack. It is not a completed sinking. It is not a closed missing-person file. Masters who brief Thursday as a new strike, as a settled wreck on the bottom, or as a Constanta or Varna harbour shutdown will have merged a wreck-move into Friday’s casualty tape.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. NAVWARN 766/26. East of Shabla. Sighting clock 1800 UTC 28 October 2026. Position 43-30.60 N, 028-43.69 E. Hull M/V KHORYV, IMO 8138712. Capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, without crew and lights. Navigational danger. Increased caution. Safety distance of five cables. Stay with that wording. The spelling “REPRESEND” is on the broadcast; do not tidy it into a different product. Do not invent a one-nautical-mile circle on this notice. Romania’s one-nautical-mile language lived on ARN 158/2026. Bulgaria printed five cables. Hold both historic figures and use five cables against today’s plot.
An earlier Bulgarian notice, NAVWARN 758/26, is no longer the instrument. Industry coastal reprints carry 758/26 as received at 21:26 UTC on 27 October and archived at 21:46 UTC on 28 October, when 766/26 replaced it. The 758/26 text sighted the same hull at 1900 UTC on 27 October, 13 miles east of Cape Sivriburun, in 43-43.00N 028-51.00E, still capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, without crew and lights, still a five-cable keep-clear, already printing IMO 8138712. Wednesday evening’s 766/26 moves the plot about twelve nautical miles further south-southwest, to 43-30.60 N, 028-43.69 E, and titles the water east of Shabla. Do not brief 758/26 as still in force.
The Romanian wrap, not a second Bulgarian primary, is that ARN 158/2026 is no longer in force on the industry coastal board. Tuesday’s dedicated Directorate piece plotted the working keep-clear at 43-49.50 N, 028-53.37 E, header 43-49.502 N, 028-53.368 E, after a 10:00 UTC report on 27 October, still afloat and capsized, still three missing, still a one-nautical-mile keep-clear, report to MRCC Constanta. Industry reprints now mark 158/26 archived on 28 October. The public Romanian avize-radio page on Thursday morning is carrying live-firing notices, not a Khoryv wreck line. Until a later ARN reprints the hull, Bulgaria’s 766/26 is the working hydrographic keep-clear. Do not leave Tuesday’s one-nautical-mile circle on the Constanta landfall as if it were still the position.
Ministry colour from 27 October, held as background rather than as today’s primary: the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications said authorities were monitoring the capsized cargo vessel Khoryv in real time, expected it to enter the Bulgarian zone of responsibility within 24 hours, and said a Navy vessel would be dispatched to inspect, with regular Notices to Mariners to follow. Transport minister Georgi Peev and defence minister Dimitar Stoyanov had coordinated courses of action. That 27 October statement is the political and SAR-posture wrap. 766/26 is the numbered notice that statement said would be issued. It is not a finding that the inspection is complete, that the hull is marked, or that the three missing from Friday’s ANR file have been accounted for.
Open-register colour only, unchanged from Friday’s dedicated casualty file: IMO 8138712, Comoros flag, ore/oil carrier, 1983, about 119 metres, on the order of 3,280 dwt. Friday’s ANR tape remains the crew accounting: 13 on board (10 Ukrainian, 3 Azerbaijani), nine recovered alive, one dead, three missing. 766/26 does not move those numbers. It prints without crew and lights because the wreck is drifting unmanned, not because the search has closed.
What this is not
This is not a second Khoryv attack. Friday 23 October 07:06 UTC remains the capsize clock on dedicated ARN 152/2026 / industry 153/26 at 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E. Friday’s dedicated ANR naming remains the drone-hit / fire / capsize / search piece, 13 nautical miles abeam of Constanta, outside Romanian territorial waters. 766/26 is a wreck-move and a jurisdiction-and-keep-clear product. It does not reprint an attacker.
This is not Thursday’s companion Contship Jet file. NAVWARN 759/26 and 761/26 sit about fifteen nautical miles south-southeast of this morning’s Khoryv plot, name IMO 9348625, and are a surface-drone hit plus a dangerous-goods container watch. Do not collapse a 2007 Liberia feeder onto a 1983 Comoros OBO. This is not Wine Trader at 45-00.40 N, 029-59.92 E. This is not HS Dignity, Chelsea 3, MApN 213, the EP 432-52-88 / CSAT vote, or Tuesday’s NATO extra-MPA note. This is not Warning 185-26 and not a Hormuz product. UKMTO still ends at 184-26. Update 108 remains last numbered JMIC periodic note. IMO still 121 / 24 as at 27 October.
This is not a wreck buoy, a least-depth survey, or a pollution declaration. 766/26 prints capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, unlit, five cables. It does not mark the hull on the bottom. It does not close Varna, Kavarna, Shabla, Constanta, Midia, Mangalia or the Sulina Canal. Same-day Romanian wrap, not this hull: ARN 147/2026 still warns of real firing on 29 October 14:00–17:00 UTC and 30 October 07:00–17:00 UTC in a prohibited box well north of Shabla, cancel 301800 UTC 30 October; ARN 143/2026 still runs firing and UAV flights through 291500 UTC 29 October in a related northern box. Those boxes are not Khoryv. ARN 157/2026, the 20-nautical-mile exercise around 44-02.79 N, 030-35.25 E, and ARN 150/2026, the Cătuneanu survey, are off the industry in-force list as of the 28 October withdrawals. Do not leave them in the master’s pack as live wreck geometry.
Operational implications
For a master shaping the recommended Constanta landfall at 43-47.59 N, 028-50.86 E, or running the coastwise track from Constanta toward Varna and Burgas, Wednesday night moved the wreck out of the Romanian keep-clear and onto the Bulgarian Shabla offset. From Tuesday’s ARN 158/2026 plot at 43-49.50 N, 028-53.37 E, the 1800 UTC 28 October sighting has made good about 19 nautical miles south and about seven nautical miles west. From Friday’s capsize at 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E, the hull has made good about 36 nautical miles south and about 13 nautical miles west. The working five-cable circle now sits on the order of five to six nautical miles east-southeast of Shabla, well south of the standing Constanta TSS landfall, and still drifting. A passage plan that only carried Tuesday’s one-nautical-mile circle, or that treated the wreck as a Romanian problem because ARN 158/2026 was the last dedicated file, has the wrong coastal state, the wrong radius and the wrong lat-long.
For a DPA and an operator with Black Sea tonnage this week, the keep-clear change is the operational content. Romania asked for one nautical mile and a lookout, report MRCC Constanta. Bulgaria asks for five cables, increased caution, and treats the hull as a drifting unlit danger. Five cables is tighter than one nautical mile; the hull is also still drifting and still without lights, so a passage that trims to 0.5 nautical mile on a two-hour-old plot is not the intent. Bridge teams should plot 43-30.60 N, 028-43.69 E, keep well clear of the five-cable figure as a minimum, and look up-drift and down-drift for an unlit semi-submerged hull that will not match a Tuesday waypoint. Further sightings belong with the Bulgarian coastal-state system that issued 766/26, and with MRCC Constanta only insofar as the three-missing SAR file remains a Romanian-origin accounting. 766/26 does not transfer that SAR file and does not close it.
For charterers and P&I, Thursday is a jurisdiction-and-geometry file, not a new war-risk conversion. Delay conversations on Constanta and Varna approaches will now ask whether the ship passed east of Shabla after 1800 UTC 28 October, whether it logged an unlit drifting hull, and whether it was still using the 43-49.50 N circle. They will not be answered by 759/26, by Advisory 184-26, or by the 27 October ministry monitoring note. Do not treat five cables as permission to close Varna roads. Do not treat the missing IMO-on-ARN gap as a new casualty; Bulgaria has now printed 8138712 against the same name the ANR used on Friday.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. Friday ANR remains the casualty and search piece. Saturday’s 152/2026 remains the first public lat-long. Sunday’s 155/2026 and Tuesday’s 158/2026 remain the Romanian wreck-move series, now superseded as the working keep-clear. 759/26 remains Thursday’s companion Contship Jet hit. Wine Trader remains the dedicated Sulina fire. Do not recast 29 October morning as a second Khoryv attack, as a closed search, as a wreck buoy, or as a harbour closure.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 766/26 as the working keep-clear, not as a second Khoryv attack. NAVWARN 766/26, sighting 1800 UTC 28 October, east of Shabla. Position 43-30.60 N, 028-43.69 E. M/V KHORYV, IMO 8138712. Capsized, semi-submerged, drifting, without crew and lights. Navigational danger. Increased caution. Five-cable safety distance. This is not 759/26, not ARN 158/2026, not a wreck buoy, and not a closed search.
- Retire 758/26 and ARN 158/2026 as the live geometry. 758/26 at 43-43.00N 028-51.00E, 13 miles east of Cape Sivriburun, 1900 UTC 27 October, is archived. ARN 158/2026 at 43-49.50 N, 028-53.37 E, one-nautical-mile keep-clear, three missing, report MRCC Constanta, is no longer in force on the industry coastal board. Do not leave Tuesday’s circle on the Constanta landfall.
- Plot the drift, then add sea-room beyond five cables. About 19 nautical miles south and seven nautical miles west of Tuesday’s Romanian plot; about 36 nautical miles south and 13 nautical miles west of Friday’s capsize. The wreck is still drifting and still unlit. Five cables is the printed minimum, not a recommended CPA for an unlit semi-submerged hull at night.
- Do not close the three-missing file on this notice. 766/26 does not reprint the three missing. Friday’s dedicated ANR accounting remains nine alive, one dead, three missing, crew of 13. Without crew and lights on 766/26 describes the wreck as unmanned, not a SAR close. Report further wreck sightings through the Bulgarian warning system; do not assume MRCC Constanta is the keep-clear desk for a plot east of Shabla.
- Do not merge this wreck onto Contship Jet or the northern firing boxes. 759/26 / 761/26 remain Thursday’s companion Kaliakra containership hit and dangerous-goods container watch, IMO 9348625, about 15 nautical miles south-southeast of this plot. ARN 147/2026 and 143/2026 remain northern Romanian firing products, not this hull. Wine Trader remains the dedicated Sulina fire. UKMTO still ends at 184-26. IMO still 121 / 24 as at 27 October.
- Do not invent a wreck buoy, a pollution line, or a harbour shutdown. Varna, Kavarna, Shabla roads, Constanta, Midia, Mangalia and Sulina are not closed by 766/26. Watch a later Bulgarian NAVWARN that moves 43-30.60 N 028-43.69 E, marks a buoy or least depth, prints pollution, or a later Romanian ARN that reprints the hull; and watch any official close of the three-missing count. Do not brief Wednesday night as a completed sinking.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVWARN 766/26 against Tuesday’s ARN 158/2026 so operators can treat Wednesday’s product as the working Bulgarian wreck keep-clear east of Shabla, not as a second Khoryv attack, a closed search, or a harbour shutdown.
