Scottish house flag on the port spreader

[NormanS]

The background blue of the Scottish Saltire is supposed to be the colour of the clear blue sky.
If you know your history, you'll remember that immediately before the Battle of Athelstaneford, in AD832 where King Angus of the Picts, with some Scots, whipped King Athelstane of Northumbria, King Angus saw two jet con trails crossing on a clear blue sky, and took it to be a good omen. It was, Angus won, and the place became known as Athelstaneford.
The background colour of flag M is very much darker, but sadly is sometimes used by the uninitiated as a Scottish flag.
There now, glad I got that off my chest.

 

[Kukri]

Not sure I have ever observed any of these flags in use on a yacht. And in big ships the tiny flags are rarely visible anyway.
It is generally clear when a ship is in pilotage mode (big ship in waters requiring a pilot, either a suitably qualified skipper or pilot on board) and confident that all pilots now requested via (satellite) phone and/or VHF. Extremely rare these days that pilot boat base is even in sight of ships coming in.

It gives the deck cadet something to do.

Which flags does one reckon are appropriate, here?

 

[Greemble]

The background blue of the Scottish Saltire is supposed to be the colour of the clear blue sky.

Cheers
- I'll fully admit to not knowing that.

 

[NormanS]

It gives the deck cadet something to do.

Which flags does one reckon are appropriate, here?

An anchor ball? These are fantastic heavy lift ships. They often come close to our town to do their stuff with jackets, and most recently a very tall jack-up.

 

[Blue Sunray]

The only flag I fly at the back of my boat is a Saltire. When I bought boatie (darn sarf in the Solent) it came with a red ensign on a jackstaff but this snapped off one night on the way home with the loss off both.

Not being at all superstitious I took this as an omen and decided to instal,Mount,hoist, whatever the remaining jackstaff with the Saltire.

who cares? Really, who cares? Whenever I read these threads about flags I get a vision of some trumpet in the home counties sitting wearing tattered deck shoes, faded pink trousers ,a smock and a Breton cap fuming into his gin while furiously hammering away at the keyboard...and he dreams one day of the wife allowing him to buy a boat.

Judging by that you do, I doubt many others would though.

 

[wully1]

Judging by that you do, I doubt many others would though.

faded pink trousers suits you.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Red Ensign on the back (We're British don't you know), Croatian courtesy flag on the starboard spreader as we were in Croatia, The Saltire (me + the boat) German and Italian for the 2 young ladies on board and the EU flag to complete the set.

 

[Kukri]

An anchor ball? These are fantastic heavy lift ships. They often come close to our town to do their stuff with jackets, and most recently a very tall jack-up.

Thank you!

The “Maersk Honam” suffered a terrible cargo fire, started as so often by a mis-declared container of dangerous goods, which killed five people. The burned and distorted forebody and accommodation block have been gas axed in Dubai Dry Docks and sold for scrap and the main part of the ship, seen here, is going back to her builders yard in Korea where a new bow section will be welded on.

The “Maersk Honam” is a pretty big ship - 15,000 TEU.

Yes, the “New Brilliance” (“Xin Guang Hua”) is showing an anchor ball, but it’s about one pixel!

Under circumstances which might have been torpedoed by Brexit, some very similar ships might be flying a red ensign.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As previously pointed out, Flag "A", although of the same design as the Scottish Saltire, is a very different colour, so could only cause confusion to those afflicted by colour blindness. If you are sailing with colour blindness, you probably have more serious concerns.

Flag A:

Flag M (is the shade specified?)

Saltire (Pantone 300)

 

[alan_d]

The background blue of the Scottish Saltire is supposed to be the colour of the clear blue sky.

Indeed. The Scottish Parliament advice is Pantone 300.

(Damn. Beaten to it by JumbleDuck.)

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Groan!

Jings, crivens, help ma boab! Place a sign up saying free beer and you will achieve the desired effect of being noticed, far more than a small flag of the incorrect color.

 

[Birdseye]

.
On Fairwinds we fly the Scottish red ensign from the stern, but when we take our other boat abroad in three months' time I have explained to my partner that we will have no choice but to fly the red ensign.

We will fly a 'house flag' off the port spreader, but should it be a saltire, the Scottish red ensign - or maybe a defaced saltire with YES ?? Are there any limitations to what one can fly as a house flag on the prot spreader?



- W

Depends where you are going webbie - few countries would worry about you flying the scottish red ensign from the stern though you can never be 100% sure. After all, most foreigners dont understand that we have three ensigns anyway - just tell them that yours is the fourth post devolution.

 

[webcraft]

Depends where you are going webbie - few countries would worry about you flying the scottish red ensign from the stern though you can never be 100% sure. After all, most foreigners dont understand that we have three ensigns anyway - just tell them that yours is the fourth post devolution.

We will be visiting Portugal . . . they are rumoured to be fussy about flags. I know yachts have been fined for not flying the Portuguese courtesy flag, so I am sure theyn wojdl take a dim view of a 'dodgy' ensign.

- W

 

[pagoda]

We will be visiting Portugal . . . they are rumoured to be fussy about flags. I know yachts have been fined for not flying the Portuguese courtesy flag, so I am sure theyn wojdl take a dim view of a 'dodgy' ensign.

- W

Probably only if you don't have a Portuguese courtesy flag !

 

[Mistroma]

Flag A:

Flag M (is the shade specified?)

Saltire (Pantone 300)

The colours will have changed when it's been used a lot during summer in the med and shape isn't to obvious on a calm day. An Irish friend had a stand up argument with an obnoxious Carabinieri who questioned his right to fly an Italian ensign. The guy refused to believe it wasn't Italian and insisted on seeing his Italian papers. The flag was a bit faded but I thought the lack of a coat of arms in the middle section and Cork on the stern was a bit of a clue.

I saw a fellow Scot at anchor in Greece last year and stopped for a chat. Unfortunately, his wife couldn't understand me and called him up from below deck. The penny dropped and I pointed to the flag on his port spreader and then the one at ours and began to explain my mistake. He didn't know why I was talking about Scotland and kept saying that it was because he was at anchor, just like our boat. I don't think he knew about anchor balls. His English was OK but didn't seem to understand that we had an anchor ball for anchoring and the flag wasn't because we were stopped and not making way through the water.

It was a first for me as most people recognise an anchor ball and many have never heard of flag M.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

We will be visiting Portugal . . . they are rumoured to be fussy about flags. I know yachts have been fined for not flying the Portuguese courtesy flag, so I am sure theyn wojdl take a dim view of a 'dodgy' ensign.

- W

I agree totally - that's one country in which I would suggest sticking the rules regarding flags and such like. One of my extended family is a Portugese diplomat and even she agrees that sometimes their officials can be "a little pedantic" in such things.

 

[armchairsailor]

Dunno if it’s ok to do so, but the Scuttlebutt tipsy mouse adorns my port shroud.

 

[dgadee]

.
Just a reminder that this post was about 'going foreign' - flying anything other than a red ensign from the stern can result in a substantial fine in some countries, I am informed.

My query was really to ask if the 'anything you like on the port spreader' rule is universal.


- W

We are in Costa del Sol. Mate demanded a flag - I never flew anything - so we have a Scots ensign. Nobody cares what you fly on the stern. Just have your passports, boat documentation and you are (metaphorically) flying.

Edit: And no-one in Portugal gave two hoots, either