Flag étiquette

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Dottie

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When entering Spain from France, which flag should we fly? Been given some duff advice and would like to do the right thing?:)
 
Insufficient information, perhaps..

If you are going to the north coast, around Bilbao, then it is a Basque area, and the Basques have their own flag, green and red if I remember. Some will fly the Spanish flag, others just the Basque flag, or one above the other.

You will not get noticed if you simply fly the Spanish. And theoretically it should be the one without the crest, I believe.
 
Noticed that the Americas Cup Committee boat which is Jersey flagged wears the USA courtesy flag on the port side - another instance where the Americans are opposite to everyone else ?
 
akyaka said:
Noticed that the Americas Cup Committee boat which is Jersey flagged wears the USA courtesy flag on the port side - another instance where the Americans are opposite to everyone else ?
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Have seen quite a few boats with a national flag on the port spreaders, to indicate the nationality of the crew if different from nationality of boat registration. Often see the Welsh dragon flown there.
 
sailorman said:
That is coz American nationals are o/b
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Have seen quite a few boats with a national flag on the port spreaders, to indicate the nationality of the crew if different from nationality of boat registration. Often see the Welsh dragon flown there
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so where is USA courtesy flag since the boat is in their waters and nothing flown on starboard side.
 
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syfuga said:
Insufficient information, perhaps..

If you are going to the north coast, around Bilbao, then it is a Basque area, and the Basques have their own flag, green and red if I remember. Some will fly the Spanish flag, others just the Basque flag, or one above the other.

You will not get noticed if you simply fly the Spanish. And theoretically it should be the one without the crest, I believe.
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The Basque region is not a sovereign state any more than Cornwall is, so flying their flag is entirely a matter of the skipper's whim. Flying the courtesy version of the Spanish marine ensign is mandatory. As to your latter point, I think you're right, yet I've seen Coastguard and harbour authority vessels in the same Spanish harbour, one with the crest, one without.
 
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macd said:
The Basque region is not a sovereign state any more than Cornwall is, so flying their flag is entirely a matter of the skipper's whim. Flying the courtesy version of the Spanish marine ensign is mandatory. As to your latter point, I think you're right, yet I've seen Coastguard and harbour authority vessels in the same Spanish harbour, one with the crest, one without.
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My understanding, based on enquiries made in Spain, is that the Spanish flag with the crest is the Spanish maritime flag quite like the British maritime flag as opposed to the Union Jack, the Spanish flag without the crest is the normal land-based flag. So foreign yachts should fly the Spanish flag with the crest as the courtesy flag.
 
multihullsailor6 said:
My understanding, based on enquiries made in Spain, is that the Spanish flag with the crest is the Spanish maritime flag quite like the British maritime flag as opposed to the Union Jack, the Spanish flag without the crest is the normal land-based flag. So foreign yachts should fly the Spanish flag with the crest as the courtesy flag.
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Wiki and others somewhat disagree with that. Its page on Spanish flags shows a crested version flying on the south façade of the Royal Palace of Madrid, and I imagine someone inside knows his flags. Elsewhere it describes the crested version as 'national flag and ensign', the plain version as 'civil flag and ensign'. To add to the mix there is a distinct yacht ensign (with crown but no coat-of-arms) and a customs service ensign, each with different crests yet again. Then there are several jacks and pennants. And you thought the British stuff was confusing to foreigners.

Wiki expressly states that The flag for private sport and leisure boats is the flag of Spain charged with the royal crown in blue in the centre of the yellow stripe i.e. neither the fully-crested nor plain versions. I daresay you'd go a long way to find a Spaniard who knew this, or cared.

This page http://flagspot.net/flags/es_var.html#var
has a lot of input, mainly from Spanish nationals. There's a lot of arcane and not-very-joined-up law involved, but the general view is that both plain and crested versions are OK for leisure craft (and pretty much anything else). An incidental factor seems to have been that the crested flag was expensive to make, so poorer people couldn't afford it. Incidentally, historically, the maritime flag evidently came first, the national flag being derived from it.

So long as it's yellow and red (fading to pink) I don't think the OP will have a problem...unless he accidentally picks up a Catalan flag.
 
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>the Spanish flag with the crest is the Spanish maritime flag quite like the British maritime flag as opposed to the Union Jack, the Spanish flag without the crest is the normal land-based flag. So foreign yachts should fly the Spanish flag with the crest as the courtesy flag.

Yes that's correct. I've never seen one in a UK chandlers we bought one in Spain. Nowadays they are probably available online.
 
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