Red Ensign on Backstay

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Are you seriously suggesting there is a correlation between the way people sail and the colour of their ensign? Seriously?

Equally bizarre, are you seriously suggesting there is a correlation between the way people drive and the make of car they own? Seriously?

Certain uppercrust yacht clubs in the UK are allowed to fly defaced Blue Ensigns. The OP was displaying a modicum of inverse snobbery.
JumbleDuck in Post#6 explains the car analogy.
There is a certain amount of irony flowing through this thread, are you American, by any chance?

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Aren't you supposed to take your ensign down at dusk?

Yes, Samuel Pepys when he was in charge of procurement for the RN, discovered that they last twice as long if not flow/worn/displayed during the hours of darkness, when no one could see them anyway.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Everyone seems to have missed out on the fun to be had if you can dip your ensign when encountering a naval vessel

 

[vas]

One inch of ensign per foot of boat, old boy.

hm, according to this (didn't know it!) I need to double the current size.
What's even worse is that I feel the 60cm one I have now large.
A 1.1m one is going to be a bit of a problem tbh...

V.

 

[johnalison]

Mine is measured in yards.

 

[Poignard]

Everyone seems to have missed out on the fun to be had if you can dip your ensign when encountering a naval vessel

Especially if it's an aircraft carrier. It's a long way for someone to run aft to dip to you.

 

[LittleSister]

Is there not yet an app that makes your phone project a hologram of the ensign of your choice?

 

[Blue Sunray]

I served in Northern Ireland .

Traffic warden or barman?

 

[HighlandDave]

Traffic warden or barman?

Ill treat that reply with the contempt it deserves

 

[JumbleDuck]

Traffic warden or barman?

Or rigger?

 

[Daydream believer]

I served in The Bull, in darkest Essex.

2 blue rings round the eyes rather than 1 blue ensign then

 

[Daydream believer]

Everyone seems to have missed out on the fun to be had if you can dip your ensign when encountering a naval vessel

How do you dip it when it is flown 1 metre above the water line in the first place?

 

[IanL]

How do you dip it when it is flown 1 metre above the water line in the first place?

Have a small block on your backstay at a suitable height and hoist your ensign. You can then dip it at your leisure.

 

[Tranona]

Certain uppercrust yacht clubs in the UK are allowed to fly defaced Blue Ensigns.

Simply not true. Our club has a defaced blue ensign. The club was formed in 1854 "for the working men of Poole".

The very antithesis of "upper crust"

 

[Poignard]

Have a small block on your backstay at a suitable height and hoist your ensign. You can then dip it at your leisure.

As shown in post #57. With a plastic cleat secured to the backstay a few feet lower.

Before I installed the Monitor the ensign was on a flagstaff. On the exteremely rare occcasions when I dipped it I just lifted it out of its socket and lowered it until it was horizontal, then put it back again. I've never had any complaints from whatever authority concerns itself with such things (if any exists) so I assume I'm doing it right.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Simply not true. Our club has a defaced blue ensign. The club was formed in 1854 "for the working men of Poole".

Yeah, and Eton was formed to provide education for seventy poor boys, so it can't be posh either.

Do you get many people on Universal Credit coughing up £452.91 per annum to join your happy band of working class rogues?

 

[Daydream believer]

Have a small block on your backstay at a suitable height and hoist your ensign. You can then dip it at your leisure.

No good. On the lower part of the backstay ( which is adjustable ) it would flap on my head & above the split it would catch on the boom during a gybe.

Note I have an aeries & unlike others, it misses the vane whilst it is on the flagstaff, quite easily



.

 

[Blue Sunray]

Ill treat that reply with the contempt it deserves

He bit!

Now look closely at my picture, you brave soldier.

 

[Tranona]

Yeah, and Eton was formed to provide education for seventy poor boys, so it can't be posh either.

Do you get many people on Universal Credit coughing up £452.91 per annum to join your happy band of working class rogues?

Why do you always have to take an absolutist view. Why can't you see things in their context?

The comment was comparative - the poster using the term "upper crust" as a way of placing clubs in a hierarchy and I am using "working men" in the same way.

There was no UC in 1854 and members were no doubt funding their boats out of their own resources.

 

[macd]

Why do you always have to take an absolutist view. Why can't you see things in their context?

Perhaps because "the context" is AD2018?
With perhaps an element of fun.
Made I larf, Jumble :encouragement: