Flag etiquette for Remembrance Sunday

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Dan Tribe

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My club is hosting a cruiser race on Sunday and the plan is for all competitors to anchor off the quay based town memorial during the service before racing.
Is there a correct flag etiqette?
I'm thinking, ensign at half mast and club burgee half hoist from starboard spreader.
 
At the Merchant Navy Memorial, Tower Hill, the Red Ensign is lowered to half mast at the first note of Last Post and Colours are lowered to the ground; at the first note of Reveille, Ensign and Colours are raised. The Two Minutes Silence is between the two calls. If you are having bugle calls, you could follow suit but if no calls, then Ensigns to remain at full staff.
 
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Dan Tribe said:
My club is hosting a cruiser race on Sunday and the plan is for all competitors to anchor off the quay based town memorial during the service before racing.
Is there a correct flag etiqette?
I'm thinking, ensign at half mast and club burgee half hoist from starboard spreader.
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Both should have a black border added. Widows dressed in black should wail audibly throughout the service while a mute in a top hat beats a drum at two second intervals.
 
German Imperialist hanging by the neck from the from the starboard spreader. You need to find one with one of those pointy helmets or it doesn't count.
 
Dan Tribe said:
ensign at half mast and club burgee half hoist
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Is a burgee ever dipped - for any reason? Not come across that before.

However one does - distressingly often - see flags at half hoist when they are supposed to be at half mast, a truly ghastly sight.

Here's the correct way;

Half-mast means the flag is flown two-thirds of the way up the flagpole, with at least the height of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the flagpole. Flags cannot be flown at half-mast on poles that are more than 45° from the vertical, but a mourning cravat can be used instead.
When a flag is to be flown at half-mast, it should first be raised all the way to the top of the mast, allowed to remain there for a second and then be lowered to the half-mast position. When it is being lowered from half-mast, it should again be raised to the top of the mast for a second before being fully lowered.

Clearly often not possible to achieve on a short yacht's staff of course.
 
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Old Bumbulum said:
Flags cannot be flown at half-mast on poles that are more than 45° from the vertical, but a mourning cravat can be used instead.
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I had to Google that. For those who share my (former) ignorance, it's one of these

Union-Flag-with-Mourning-CravatCrop-e1456932773826.jpg


Flag etiquette is delightfully silly.
 
All very fascinating, but it the whole thread seems to arise from a (seemingly increasingly common) impression that Remembrance Day is an occasion of mourning, it is not, or at least it wasn't so intended. There is a difference between remembrance and mourning.

Sadly in recent years it seems to have also become a festival of virtue signalling and obsession with wearing poppies as much and as prominently as possible (yes I am speaking about you, TV 'personalities').
 
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Regarding the query about lowering of burgees, my experience over 60 years of sailing is that the burgee is NOT a flag for signalling purposes but purely a burgee primarily for checking wind / boat performance. The only time it is "lowered" to a point below top is when racing, to indicate to the O.O.D. that you are protesting against a fault action by a competitor. This gives you the right to continue racing then call your protest when you come ashore. Alternatively you can tie a white cloth or rag to the starboard shroud of your boat. A burgee is not lowered as a mark of respect as discussed in this forum. Elhanan skipper
 
Elecglitch said:
All very fascinating, but it the whole thread seems to arise from a (seemingly increasingly common) impression that Remembrance Day is an occasion of mourning, it is not, or at least it wasn't so intended. There is a difference between remembrance and mourning.

Sadly in recent years it seems to have also become a festival of virtue signalling and obsession with wearing poppys as much and as prominently as possible (yes a am speaking about you, TV 'personalities').
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Amen to that.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Flag etiquette is delightfully silly.
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Jumble, I disagree with silly.
I too was unaware of the notion of a mourning cravat until this afternoon but it makes perfect sense.
Flag etiquette is surely no more than showing politeness, respect, honour and gratitude to your country.
Isn't that enough, given all that our national flag represents - and the country that has nurtured us?
 
Old Bumbulum said:
Flag etiquette is surely no more than showing politeness, respect, honour and gratitude to your country.
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Not really. I can't see how deciding where (or whether) to fly a burgee, based on the "seniority" of the yacht club it represents, has anything to do with showing politeness, respect, honour and gratitude to your country. It's all a game, basically, invented by yacht club members in the 1920s and 30s to help them distinguish people like them from oiks in boats.

If people want to play that game, fine, but it's not intrinsically worth any more respect than any other game, and the rest of us need feel no guilt about choosing not to play.
 
Cancel the race . Or grow a pair and find somewhere more challenging to race than the town creek.
 
JumbleDuck said:
It's all a game, basically, invented by yacht club members in the 1920s and 30s to help them distinguish people like them from oiks in boats.
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Not really. Some of the better clubs (mine included) were "playing the game"long before the 1920s and 30s. Still great fun for those who want to play.

PS Some of our members started out as oiks but worked out how to improve themselves.
 
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