Pilotage recommendations, traffic suspensions and incomplete SP-1 filings account for most avoidable delays in the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Here is how to plan around them.
Around forty thousand vessels pass through the Turkish Straits every year, in water that is narrow, current-swept and shared with dense local traffic. Most transits are uneventful. The ones that are not usually go wrong for reasons that were visible days earlier.
Incomplete SP-1 filings
The SP-1 report is the transit's entry ticket. It has to describe the vessel accurately: length, beam, draft, cargo, and — crucially — any defect that affects manoeuvrability. Vessels that file late, or file and then amend the ETA repeatedly, end up scheduled around rather than into the traffic plan.
Our practice is to file within two hours of receiving complete particulars, then update the ETA as a single revision rather than a stream of small corrections.
Pilotage that was declined and then needed
Pilotage is not compulsory for every vessel, but for larger tonnage, tankers and anything carrying dangerous cargo it is strongly recommended and, in practice, expected. Declining it to save a line on the disbursement account is a false economy when the alternative is a suspension notice while the traffic scheme reorganises around you.
We give a recommendation based on the vessel's actual dimensions, cargo and manoeuvring characteristics rather than a general rule, and we say plainly when we think declining is the wrong call.
Traffic suspensions
Suspensions happen for weather, for visibility, for outsized vessels transiting under special arrangements, and for incidents. They are announced, but they are announced to those watching. A vessel that arrives at the strait entrance during a suspension without having planned for it loses the tide and sometimes the berth at the far end.
What to do
Three things reduce transit risk more than anything else: file the SP-1 early and completely, take pilotage where it is recommended, and have someone monitoring the traffic scheme who will call you before the delay happens rather than after.
Rules and practice in the Straits change. Confirm the current position for your vessel before each transit rather than relying on the last one.
- Turkish Straits
- Transit
- Pilotage
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