Do you know the rules for wearing a blue flag? Do you know who has the right to wear a privileged badge? What happens when a yacht with a preferred sign visits a foreign port?
What are the rules for wearing a blue flag?
James Stevens answers your seamanship questions.
Question:
Paul bought his first yacht, a 10m production cruiser.
It has a berth in the local marina, next to a yacht club.
The club has a blue flag on its mast, and the same flag is carried by some of its members on their yachts.
Paul likes the look of this flag and feels it would improve the look of his boat. However, he is confused.
He knows that flying a blue flag comes with rules.
Looking around the marina, a few yachts fly their club pennants from the masthead and the club itself has the pennant atop its mast outside the clubhouse.
Most owners fly their club burgees from the spreaders, some to port and some to starboard.
Other yachts have a blue flag at the stern but without a staff on the mast.
Paul also knows that when he travels abroad he must wear a badge of courtesy from the country he is visiting.
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In the evening, some owners take down their signs, others leave them up. Others take the burgees too. What are the rules regarding townspeople and ensigns and where would Paul find them?
Who has the right to wear a privileged badge and who, if so, controls it?
What happens when a yacht with a preferred sign visits a foreign port?
Responnse:
Permission to carry a privileged ensign is granted by yacht clubs to their members in the form of a yacht and owner permit, which is usually accompanied by instructions on the flag tag requiring the club burglar flies with the ensign.
The RYA also provides advice.
Traditionally, burgees are flown from the masthead, but only a few clubs insist on it, including the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Cruising Club.
Most other clubs allow their members to fly the burgee from the starboard spreader halyard.
James Stevens, author of the Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 years as RYA’s Yachtmaster Training Manager and Chief Examiner
In the port, the sign must be raised at 8:00 a.m. local time from February 15 to October 31 and at 9:00 a.m. from November 1 to February 14, and lowered at sunset or 9:00 p.m. local time, whichever comes first.
It is now customary for the bourgeois to remain standing for the duration of the cruise.
The starboard spreader halyard is the signal halyard and is where a courtesy placard is carried.
The real controversy begins when the yachts go overseas.
Flag etiquette states that no flag should be flown above the burgee on the same halyard and no flag should be above the courtesy sign.
How you choose to solve this problem is a matter of choice.
If you don’t want to break any rules, fly a hook off the masthead or forget your yacht club and fly a red flag.
On the other hand, no one will get too excited if you use the port halyard for one of the flags.
Except for a few clubs that might revoke a permit, flag etiquette isn’t really monitored, it’s up to you.
Happy reading What are the rules for wearing a blue flag?
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