royal yacht squadron burgee

• British Flags
• Yacht club Ensigns & Burgees

Royal Yacht Squadron Burgee

• Create New Wish List

Write a Review

Related products.

Royal Welsh Yacht Club Burgee

Royal Cork Yacht Club Burgee

Royal Thames Yacht Club Burgee

Royal Cornwall Yacht Club Burgee

Royal Irish Yacht Club Burgee

Customer reviews.

This product hasn't received any reviews yet. Be the first to review this product!

Recently Viewed

Before you leave....

Take 5% off your first order

Enter the code below at checkout to get 5% off your first order

• Recommended 0

Burgee, Royal Yacht Squadron

For more information about using images from our Collection, please contact RMG Images .

Object Details

Your request.

If an item is shown as “offsite”, please allow eight days for your order to be processed. For further information, please contact Archive staff:

Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 8312 6516 (during Library opening hours)

Click “Continue” below to continue processing your order with the Library team.

• Regulations

Flag etiquette

Flag etiquette is a combination of law (what you must do) and maritime tradition (expectations of behaviour within the sea faring community).

Being ill-informed of your obligations could lead you to cause insult at home or abroad by giving a signal you do not intend to give, or could lead you to a fine for breaking the law.

For many who go to sea, flag etiquette and flag rules are an essential part of the overall sailing process. Only with the right flag, correctly positioned, can you to be sure that you are giving the correct message and that any signal you are giving is clear.

For RYA members

The original RYA book (C4/01) has been reorganised into 3 parts for publication on the RYA website and is available to RYA members to download .

For all website users

A brief overview designed to demystify the basics of flag etiquette follows:

What to put where

The most senior position for a flag on a vessel is reserved for the Ensign - this is as close to the stern of the vessel as possible.  The Ensign shows the country of registry of the vessel and indicates its nationality. A UK flagged vessel must wear her ensign as required by the Merchant Shipping Act, which includes when entering or leaving a foreign port and on demand. It is recommended that the ensign is worn at all times in daylight, especially when near to or in sight of land or another vessel.  A UK registered vessel should wear the national maritime flag, the Red Ensign, unless entitled to wear a special Ensign . Wearing anything other than an authorised Ensign is a violation of British and International Law.

As the Ensign takes the senior position on a vessel, the order of precedence for positions for flying other flags is: 2) masthead, 3) starboard spreader, 4) port spreader. This assumes a simple plan of one halyard per spreader; other combinations including motor boats are discussed in the Members’ section.

Traditionally, the burgee is flown at the main masthead. A burgee must match a special Ensign if one is worn and it should always be higher than the Ensign. Flag etiquette states that only one burgee is flown at a time, but it is not uncommon nowadays to see yachts flying more than one burgee. Although this might cause offence to some, there is nothing legally wrong with this practice provided the rules governing the wearing of a special ensign are adhered to.

The starboard spreaders are used for signalling. This is where both a courtesy flag and the Q flag , as signals, should be flown. These days it is becoming increasingly common for yachts to fly a burgee from the starboard spreaders because of instrumentation sited at the main masthead. Again, legally there is nothing wrong with doing so but this practice presents a number of problems for those who wish to adhere to the traditions of flag etiquette.

More than one flag may be flown on a halyard except that flag etiquette states that no flag can be above the burgee on the same halyard and no flag can be worn above the courtesy flag. If you fly a burgee at the starboard spreaders and are sailing in the territorial waters of another country this presents something of a dilemma, particularly if you must fly a burgee to match a special Ensign. Unless the burgee is in its traditional position at the masthead, you risk flouting one or another element of flag etiquette. How you choose to resolve this is a matter of choice.

A word on courtesy flags, most countries use their national flag at sea and it is therefore not uncommon to see a foreign visitor flying a Union Jack as a courtesy flag when visiting UK waters. This is wrong; the correct flag is always a Red Ensign. There is no legal requirement to fly a courtesy flag; it is a courtesy that acknowledges that the vessel will respect the laws and sovereignty of that country. However, if one is not flown or it is tatty or faded, it may cause grave offence and in some countries can lead to a fine.

The port spreaders are used for house flags . A house flag is normally but not always a small rectangular version of a burgee. It may indicate membership of an association (e.g the RYA) or society or may be to indicate membership of another club should that club have a house flag.  More than one house flag may be flown on the port halyard, but with caution as too many might appear vulgar to some.

The Union Jack, Welsh Dragon, the Crosses of St Andrew, St George and St Patrick and the EU flag are primarily land flags and must not be flown at sea as an Ensign by cruising yachtsmen. At sea the cross of St George is the flag of an Admiral and it should therefore not be flown by anyone else, without special dispensation. A vessel flying the St Andrew’s Cross could be mistaken as saying "my vessel is stopped and making no way through the water" as this is the meaning of code flag M which has the same design and the St Patrick s Cross could be misinterpreted as code flag V "I require assistance".  

Union Jack or Union flag?

There is often a lively debate about which term is correct. In fact both terms are acceptable having been given parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag".

Sizing your flags

The sizes and condition of flags are important. They should not be tatty and should not hang in the water, but should still be large enough to be seen.

The best advice is "what looks right" but a rough guide is:

The general guideline for the size of Ensign used to be an inch per foot of yacht, but on many modern yachts this is found to be a little on the small side for the vessel to look "well dressed". Roughly speaking a 3/4 yard Ensign should look right on a boat of 21-26 ft, 1 yard for 27- 34 ft, 1 1/4 yard for 35 - 42 ft, 1 1/2 yard for 43 - 50 ft and 1 3/4 yard for 51 - 60 ft, but some discretion may need to be applied.

A burgee of 15" in the fly (the horizontal measurement) should look appropriate on vessels up to 34ft. This increases to 18" for up to 42ft, 24" for up to 50ft and 30" up to 60 ft.

Courtesy Flag

Having an undersized, faded or tatty courtesy flag in many places is worse than having no courtesy flag. Again as a guide only, 12" in the fly should look appropriate for 21-26 ft, 15" for 27- 34 ft, 18" for 35 - 42 ft, 22" for 43 - 50 ft and 30" for 51 - 60 ft. Availability may however end up dictating the size of the flag.

House flags

A house flag of a similar size to those listed for the courtesy flag will generally be appropriate.

Special Ensigns

In addition to the national maritime flag, the Red Ensign, there is a White Ensign, a Blue Ensign and there are a number of Red Ensigns with a badge, Blue Ensigns with a badge and a light blue Ensign with a badge. These additional Ensigns are special or privileged Ensigns may only be worn with permission, which is granted ultimately by the King.

A warrant grants this permission and the Ensign must be worn in accordance with the warrant, which will in most cases require the corresponding burgee to be displayed. In most cases the warrant is granted to a Yacht Club, which in turns gives its members permission to wear the Ensign under the conditions of the warrant, by issuing the members with a permit.

The RYA has no power to police the wearing of ensigns or prohibited flags other than by spreading the word about flag etiquette and encouraging good practice.

The RYA flag etiquette book C1/04 has been re-written and is published online for the benefit of RYA Members.

• CLASSIFIEDS
• NEWSLETTERS
• SUBMIT NEWS

Flag Etiquette on a sailing boat today

Related Articles

Royal Yacht Squadron burgee; SGHT.2009.12

South Georgia Museum

Royal Yacht Squadron burgee

Royal Yacht Squadron burgee. White triangular flag with red cross and crown in centre. Sir Ernest Shackleton was made an honorary member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and so "Quest" was entitled to fly the white ensign.

H. 300mm; W. 480mm

"QUEST"

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON

ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON

The Royal Yacht Squadron

Exploration

SGHT.2009.12

Rights and permissions for this content

 rights.

All rights reserved

Add comment

This object is from.

Include tags such as place names, people, dates, events and colours. Use commas to separate multiple tags. e.g. Pablo Picasso, Madrid, red, 1930s.

eHive content disclaimer

The eHive Account Holder is responsible for the content on this page. This includes gaining permissions, clearance, or rights to publish any content or images on eHive. Contact the Account Holder about copyright permissions (including ordering copies of content) or issues with the publication of the information or images on eHive. For further information see our copyright claims page.

eHive is an innovative web-based system that will help you catalogue, organise and share your collection in a simple and secure way. eHive is developed by Vernon Systems .

•   Contact us
•   Developers
•   eHive policies
•   Help
•   News
•   What is eHive?

Sign up for an eHive account to start cataloguing and sharing your collection online.

•     Facebook

Vernon Systems Ltd © 2024

File : Burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron.svg

File history, file usage on commons, file usage on other wikis.

Original file ‎ (SVG file, nominally 431 × 261 pixels, file size: 65 KB)

Summary [ edit ]

Licensing [ edit ].

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

You cannot overwrite this file.

The following 4 pages use this file:

• File:Burgee of Mylor Yacht Club.svg

The following other wikis use this file:

• J-Klasse (Segeln)
• Royal Yacht Squadron
• Benutzer:Hans Koberger/Bastelecke VL Yachtclub
• Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Vorlagen/Werkstatt/Archiv 2020/1
• Vorlage:Infobox Wassersportverein
• Vorlage:Infobox Wassersportverein/Doku
• List of United Kingdom flags
• Flag of Sarawak
• Valkyrie III
• Valkyrie II
• HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht)
• Talk:America's Cup/Archive 1
• Endeavour (yacht)
• Sceptre (yacht)
• List of yacht clubs that have competed for the America's Cup
• Template:Yachtclub
• Template:Yachtclub/doc
• List of yacht clubs
• 5.5 Metre World Championship
• INEOS Britannia
• 2021 America's Cup
• 2024 America's Cup
• Farr 40 World Championship
• RC44 World Championship
• NYYC Invitational Cup
• Copa América (Vela)
• Real Escuadrón de Yates
• Copa América 2017 (regata)
• Ben Ainslie Racing
• Anexo:Clubes náuticos
• Copa América 2024 (regata)
• Coupe de l'America
• Classe J (yacht)
• Pavillon (marine)
• Endeavour II (yacht)
• Guidon (marine)
• Palmarès de la Coupe de l'America
• Genesta (yacht)
• Ameríkubikarinn
• Classe J (barche a vela)
• America's Cup 2021

View more global usage of this file.

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Structured data

Items portrayed in this file, copyright status, copyrighted, dedicated to the public domain by copyright holder, copyright license, released into the public domain by the copyright holder, 26 january 2006, image/svg+xml, 68519815168e8ef218b8574a1f0e02eebaea8cfc, 67,012 byte.

• SVG burgees of the United Kingdom
• Assumed own work
• Files with no machine-readable source
• Media lacking a description
• Self-published work

Navigation menu

Flotilla Radisson Royal

• See all photos

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Flotilla Radisson Royal - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024) - Tripadvisor