Flashy
Active Member
Can you get a defaced St Piran?
Ensigns/flags
- Thread starter robertj
- Start date
Can you get a defaced St Piran?
chinita
Well-Known Member
Privilege is not the adjective I would choose. However, that is how some are described.
This from the RYA:
'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 Queen.'
KevO
Well-Known Member
chinita
Well-Known Member
Anyway, I have said this before and I will say it again.
A blue ensign is priceless for a quiet night in an anchorage because no ****er will come and talk to you.
A blue ensign is priceless for a quiet night in an anchorage because no ****er will come and talk to you.
T
timbartlett
Guest
I think you may have been having your leg ever so gently pulled!
It seemed to me that the point Chinita was making is that if you really really want to wear/fly a blue ensign, you can do so. Anyone can.
All you have to do is join a blue ensign club, and have a British registered boat over 7m long.
Personally, I would suggest that other things might have more influence on your choice of club, such as proximity, facilities, or the bar price list -- but if the colour of the flag is that important to you, that is your choice.
Rivers & creeks
Well-Known Member
We fly the Suffolk flag in home waters in small part because the whole ensign colour thing is delightful English bolloxs, a lot of snobbery that's actually quite fun to watch. Travelling abroad it's the red because we're proud to be British and like flaunting it with an ensign so huge it would make a Dutchman blush. We discovered that it seems to be missing the Welsh bits which is a terrific shame (it was very cheap on eBay) Ensigns are such fun aren't they 
robertj
Well-Known Member
Yes I don't see why not, possibly if you have lived (but not born)in Kernow for over 80 years then the defacing may be allowed. What about an ant in one corner?
Bob
prv
Well-Known Member
What about the reverse - born in Truro but parents moved away soon after and never actually lived there?
Does this make me an Emmet in England?
Pete
KevO
Well-Known Member
No... it makes you an expat 
FWB
N/A
Searush, the union flag on your ensign appears to be upside down !
jordanbasset
Well-Known Member
It's not the colour that is important but the size. Mine is pink and very large, one occasion it even dangled in the water
prv
Well-Known Member
No... it makes you an expat
Well, as long as none of you true Kerneweks are going to object to me using St Piran's Cross as a burgee on the Solent, that's fine by me
Pete
Litotes
Well-Known Member
If mine were a blue (which it could be if I chose, as I am a member of the CA) I would certainly not want to talk to anyone who wouldn't talk to someone because their ensign was blue. I prefer the company of sensible, grown up people
robertj
Well-Known Member
What about the reverse - born in Truro but parents moved away soon after and never actually lived there?
Does this make me an Emmet in England?
Pete
If you don't know that answer to that then you must be English lol.
Knowing what an ant is I feel you well know qualifies you as a cousin jack.
KevO
Well-Known Member
It's not the colour that is important but the size. Mine is pink and very large, one occasion it even dangled in the water
Do you have a tallow tip to check bottom?
Bosun Higgs
N/A
Sure it seems silly to us but then on our way down we have long passed the point where we were proud of our nation / nationality and culture. Do we have a culture any longer?
The days of "rule Britannia" have long gone ( some would say hurrah) and with it we have lost the allegiance to symbols. Do you ever see a Brit with hand on heart as the anthem is played like the Yanks do? No you dont. In fact you rarely see brits standing up when German Lizzie's anthem is played and they wouldnt take their hats off if indeed they wore them. Jingoism / patriotism is so last year.
But just because we couldnt care a damn doesnt mean that others dont and that their symbols of nation are not important to them. And those symbols include flags. You arent voicing a universal truth, just a British one.
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
I am trying to think of a way of explaining that the disdain with which ensigns are discussed and abused by some people is only possible because of the freedom and political liberal (with a small 'l') that we enjoy without sounding pompous and old and crusty. Most people in most other countries are enormously proud of their ensign and would be amazed at the nature of much of this discussion.
My remarks are not directed at the poster who I quote, but his remarks are perhaps typical of the attitude of some people to the whole question of ensigns. Even leaving on one side the whole inverted snobbery of some about Blue vs White vs Red, the very fact that some people have no pride in the the fact that an ensign is a sign if their country is completely alien to me.
I know that some might suggest that I have swallowed the whole UK PLC thing and that my military service has inbred into me a fierce patriotism, but I would rather suggest that my service round the world has made me realise just how much we take for granted.
The old saying of Kipling that if you have been born English you have won the first prize in life's lottery (excuse the Englishness bit, but it's a paraphrase of what he wrote...) anyway the gist of it seems to be taken for granted rather too easily by many people. There are many countries and people's in the world who would be totally flabbergasted at the thought of identifying a symbol of their struggling national identity as 'just a bit of cloth on a stick' and we forget at our peril the freedoms of expression and politics that allow us to not take our identity seriously.
And regarding any idea of one ensign being so somehow superior to another, well I really dont get that at all. It isn't true as far as I am concerned and the only snobbishness seems to come in the main from people who dislike those who fly Blue or White and certainly from not many of the Blue ensigned boats I know. Life's too short. I have seen idiotic behaviour from all ensign colour wearing yachts and those who wear no ensign at all.
Rant over...
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jordanbasset
Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by jordanbasset
It's not the colour that is important but the size. Mine is pink and very large, one occasion it even dangled in the water
This is our Greek Friend holding it. Please note it is still got a turn around the pole and is not fully stretched, also it is a lot pinker now
Originally Posted by jordanbasset
It's not the colour that is important but the size. Mine is pink and very large, one occasion it even dangled in the water
Do you have a tallow tip to check bottom?
This is our Greek Friend holding it. Please note it is still got a turn around the pole and is not fully stretched, also it is a lot pinker now
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jordanbasset
Well-Known Member
Error
KevO
Well-Known Member
now THAT is fecking funny.... have a virtual pint until I can buy you a real one...
