IRPCS: Crossing shiping lanes

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Oh dear, Oh dear!

No apologies. If you bear away to cross under his stern you're likely to be perceived by HMCG and Mr Justice Cocklecarrot as going the wrong way in a traffic lane.

Don't forget in Humps question we've got the wind on the nose, so you can tack in the separation zone and do both North and South lanes with traffic on the windward side.

Also any alteration of course has to be conspicous. 10 degrees is not going to be noticed by a Moldovan deck hand.

PS. Let's not forget channel 13 in all this.

 

[Guest]

Suggest you look at your question again, be specific and don't confuse yourself or others.


'Shipping lanes' are not part of the IRPCS

There are Rule 9 Narrow Channels and rule 10 Traffic Separation Schemes, in the IRPCS
Within rule 10 'traffic lanes' are referred to (not shipping lanes)

In the industry Shipping lanes refer to any regular route used by shipping, including many routes across Oceans. There are also Charts showing Recomended routes for Shipping. These are not Traffic Separation Schemes.

 

[Guest]

Se-bloody-mantics!

H's question was well meant. Everyone knows that he meant crossing a TSS or a pair of them.

I can just imagine you, with all due respect, as I don't know you, but have a feel from the terse nature of your text being one of those who crosses their "i's" and dots their "t's" ....

Crossing TSS's is no big deal ... Just give way, run along and then cross behind them ... after all they are a) bigger than you and b) more importantly, commercial ....

The reality of IRPCS is quite simple : 1) TSS (Rule 10) : switch your engine on and cross it quickly; 2) If an impending collision is about to occur and it's bigger than you, then get out of its way.

Simple Story:

Big boat bearing down on plastic. Plastic take megaphone and yells to big boat "SAIL"

Big boat takes bullhorn and whispers into it "S T E E L "

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Rules are for the guidance of both the wise and fools.




Birgitta

 

[peterb]

The 2 knot tide is a red herring. The requirement is that your heading is as near as practicable at 90 degrees to the general direction of traffic flow. That is your 'heading', not your 'ground track'. With 2 knots of tide it would be quite possible to achieve a ground track at 90 degrees to the flow, but that's not what is required.

 

[Guest]

Fair enough - but what a range of opinions about a

I didn't set out to confuse anyone - I hadn't considering the subtle difference between shipping lanes and a TSS ...

Still, I asked the question (knowing the thrust of the correct answer) and I have learned aspects I was NOT aware of previously - such as needing to maintain five knots when crossing.

I was unclear over certain aspects of putting the rules into effect, but then it would appear so are many others.

Just curious, but at what angle do you cease to be crossing a TSS and may be considered to be following the "lane"?

 

[peterb]

Tolerance

Don't quote me, but I seem to remember a statement from Dover Coastguard that they would accept a deviation from the correct heading by up to 20 degrees, provided that the deviation was in the same direction as the traffic flow. I remember, because I equally remember thinking that that was a fat lot of use; if the wind was directly across the lanes then 20 degrees wouldn't be enough, and if the wind was at a sufficient angle for the 20 degree tolerance to be useful in crossing one lane, then it would be impossible to cross the other. Still, maybe you just hang about in the separation zone until the wiond changes!