{"id":1090,"date":"2026-10-24T11:32:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T11:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/romania-posts-a-1-nm-keep-clear-on-the-khoryv-wreck-off-constanta\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T11:33:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T11:33:36","slug":"romania-posts-a-1-nm-keep-clear-on-the-khoryv-wreck-off-constanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/romania-posts-a-1-nm-keep-clear-on-the-khoryv-wreck-off-constanta\/","title":{"rendered":"Romania posts a 1 NM keep-clear on the Khoryv wreck off Constanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romania\u2019s Maritime Hydrographic Directorate published a radio navigational warning on Friday afternoon that Friday morning\u2019s dedicated Khoryv distress file did not yet have. The official text, printed on the Directorate\u2019s avize-radio page and cancelling ARN 149\/2026, states that at 10:06 local on 23 October \u2014 07:06 UTC \u2014 M\/V Khoryv capsized in position 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E. The vessel remains afloat in a capsized condition. Three crew members are reported missing. All ships in the vicinity, and all ships transiting the area, are requested to keep a sharp lookout for persons in the water. Mariners are advised to keep a safe distance of at least one nautical mile from the vessel. It is a danger to navigation. Relevant information is to be reported to MRCC Constanta on VHF Channel 16 or by e-mail to mrcc@rna.ro. Industry coastal reprints carry the same wording as 153\/26, updated at 19:02 UTC on 23 October, still active until further notice. The Directorate\u2019s own print-link on the public page is ARN 152\/2026. Hold both numbers against the same text. Do not invent a third warning.<\/p>\n

This is a wreck-and-lookout product. It is not a rewrite of Friday\u2019s dedicated Romanian Naval Authority naming of Khoryv after a fire, major damage and capsize 13 nautical miles abeam of Constanta, outside territorial waters. That Authority file remains the named-hull, crew-count and search piece: Comoros flag, crew of 13 (ten Ukrainian, three Azerbaijani), nine recovered alive, one body recovered, three missing. It is not Saturday\u2019s dedicated territorial-waters Geran intercept off Sulina. It is not this week\u2019s dedicated European Parliament and Romania CSAT file on a possible Black Sea naval operation. It is not Wine Trader\u2019s Sulina-roadstead reconstruction. Friday midday\u2019s Authority piece said, correctly at that clock, that no public NAVAREA wreck warning and no pollution line had been printed. Friday evening\u2019s hydrographic notice is that missing instrument. Masters who brief Saturday as a second Khoryv attack, as a completed sinking, or as a closed missing-person search will have merged three products.<\/p>\n

What the warning actually printed<\/h2>\n

The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. BLACK SEA. ROMANIA. VESSEL CAPSIZED. DANGER TO NAVIGATION. Valid from 23 October 2026 00:00 UTC until further notice. The capsize clock is 23 October 2026 at 07:06 UTC, 10:06 local. The position is 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E, repeated in the body. The hull is named M\/V KHORYV. The vessel remains afloat in a capsized condition. Three crew members are reported missing. Ships nearby and ships transiting are to keep a sharp lookout for MOB. The keep-clear is at least one nautical mile. Report to MRCC Constanta, VHF 16 or mrcc@rna.ro. That is the product. The Directorate did not print a wreck buoy, a light, a sinking time, a pollution line, a cargo, a bunker figure, an IMO number, or an attacker. Industry coastal reprints add the PAN PAN precedence and the cancel of ARN 149\/2026. They do not add a survey.<\/p>\n

The geometry is the operator fact Friday\u2019s Authority file could only give as \u201c13 nautical miles east of Constanta.\u201d 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E sits on the Constanta offset, outside the 12-mile line, on the coastal track that Friday\u2019s AIS colour already put on a Sulina-bound run from Eregli. It is not inside the Sulina Canal and not on the Sulina roadstead. A one-nautical-mile keep-clear around that position is a plotted circle, not a harbour closure. Constanta, Midia and Mangalia are not closed by this notice. The Sulina approaches are not closed by this notice. Do not brief a Romanian port shutdown from a wreck warning 13 miles offshore.<\/p>\n

The missing-crew line is still open. Friday\u2019s Authority count was nine alive, one dead, three missing. The hydrographic notice repeats the three-missing figure and asks every transiting hull to keep a lookout. It does not close the search. It does not revise the dead or the recovered. Ukrainian foreign-ministry colour on Friday, already held on the dedicated Authority piece, listed one Ukrainian dead and a hospitalised captain and put the crew at 14 against Romania\u2019s 13. That discrepancy was unresolved on Friday\u2019s dedicated file. Saturday\u2019s wreck notice does not resolve it. Hold Romania\u2019s 13 and three-missing on this product. Do not invent a revised casualty table from a keep-clear.<\/p>\n

What this is not, and the same-day hydrographic colour<\/h2>\n

President Nicu\u0219or Dan\u2019s Friday drone attribution, and the Reuters NATO-flank charge, stay on Friday\u2019s dedicated Authority piece. The wreck notice does not repeat a drone, a state of origin, or a NATO tasking. Defence minister \u0218tefan Radu Oprea\u2019s Friday explanation \u2014 Coast Guard first because the hit sat outside territorial waters \u2014 is still the response geometry. A plotted wreck 13 miles east of Constanta does not move the army\u2019s territorial-waters window seaward. Tuesday\u2019s dedicated NATO extra-patrol-aircraft note remains the last alliance print on this desk. Do not sell Saturday\u2019s keep-clear as Black Sea Sentry, as an escort, or as a Joint War Committee circle change.<\/p>\n

Open-register colour, already used on Friday\u2019s dedicated file and still not an Authority or Directorate finding: IMO 8138712, Comoros, call sign D6A3168, built 1983, about 119 metres, summer deadweight about 3,280 tonnes, ore\/oil carrier on the registers. Voyage colour, also not a cargo declaration: last port Eregli on 21 October, AIS destination SVLINA, ETA 23 October 23:00 UTC. Sofia Globe\u2019s ferrous-metals line remains media colour. The wreck notice names the hull and the position. It does not confirm the cargo, the bunkers, or a pollution volume. Do not invent a slick from a keep-clear. Do not recycle Wine Trader\u2019s fire-and-abandon position, 45-00.40 N 029-59.92 E on ARN 144\/2026, onto this Constanta offset.<\/p>\n

Same-day Directorate colour, for the bridge folder, not as a second dedicated casualty: ARN 151\/2026, also published 23 October, reports a dangerous floating object observed at 13:00 local in 43-53.20 N, 030-43.20 E, general movement south with current and wind, keep at least two nautical miles, cancel 26 October 14:00 local. That is a separate drifting-object watch, farther southeast, with a later cancel clock. Do not merge it onto Khoryv. ARN 150\/2026 warns of live firing by the hydrographic vessel C\u0103pitan Comandor Alexandru C\u0103tuneanu on 26 October between 11:00 and 15:00 local in the box 44-05.00 N 029-08.00 E \/ 44-15.00 N 029-08.00 E \/ 44-15.00 N 029-30.00 E \/ 44-05.00 N 029-30.00 E, dangerous for navigation. That box sits east of the wreck position. It is a firing notice, not a wreck move. Do not brief the wreck as inside the 26 October firing box unless a later ARN says so.<\/p>\n

Operational implications<\/h2>\n

A named, positioned, still-afloat capsized hull 13 nautical miles east of Constanta is a collision, MOB and SAR-traffic problem before it is a war-risk rewrite. Friday midday\u2019s Authority piece told masters to expect an unmarked or only partly visible hull and a distress scene. Saturday\u2019s notice gives the lat-long, the one-mile circle, the three-missing lookout, and the MRCC reporting line. That is enough to put a waypoint and a keep-clear on the Constanta approach and on the coastal track toward Sulina. It is not enough to brief the hull as settled on the bottom, as lit, or as surveyed. Later Friday imagery, already on the dedicated Authority file, showed only a sliver of hull above the water. The hydrographic text still says the vessel remains afloat in a capsized condition. Hold both. A barely visible inverted hull inside a one-mile circle is a radar and visual lookout, not a charted wreck symbol until the Directorate or the Authority says so.<\/p>\n

Charterers who still treat the Romanian coast as a quiet alternative to Ukrainian ports now have a plotted obstruction on the Constanta offset and an open MOB watch. War-risk underwriters will ask for the 44-06.59 N, 029-01.10 E position, the one-mile keep-clear, the still-afloat line, and the still-open three-missing count. They will not be answered by Friday morning\u2019s Authority statement alone, and they will not be answered by this week\u2019s Brussels vote. Port State, flag and next-of-kin work remain with Comoros, the Ukrainian and Azerbaijani missions, and whoever holds the DOC. None of those names is on the wreck notice.<\/p>\n

A pollution watch remains open because the notice is silent. Friday\u2019s dedicated file already told operators not to invent a spill. Saturday\u2019s notice still prints no hydrocarbon line, no boom, and no closed beach. That is not a clean bill. Small combo \/ ore-oil hulls carry fuel. Masters inbound to Constanta, Midia or Mangalia should expect SAR and Coast Guard traffic, a one-mile keep-clear, and a lookout for persons in the water, not a completed wreck-removal order. Do not treat the canal, the roadstead or the port as closed unless the Authority or the harbour master says so.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n