The narrowest of margins

Irvine Marr, David Owens and Martyn Haines, of Clyde & Co LLP, report on the UK’s Court of Appeal decision in The Alexandra I and Ever Smart on the application of the “narrow channel rule” and the “crossing rule”

The UK Court of Appeal recently handed down its decision on appeal of the first collision case to be heard by that Court since 2004. The decision of the Admiralty Court in The Alexandra I and Ever Smart [2017] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 666 had caused considerable interest given its findings concerning which of two rules in the Collison Regulations (COLREGS), the narrow channel rule (rule 9) or the crossing rule (rule 15), applied in circumstances where one vessel was exiting a narrow channel and the other vessel was navigating towards that channel in preparation for entering it.