Signal Flags

Old Bumbulum said:
Precisely. Loading diesel fuel was never the intention of that flag. It was primarily for explosives or highly volatile products; petrol, naptha, toluene for instance.
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Should you ever sail in an area where bunkering is frequently conducted, you will always see both the bunker barge and the vessel being fuelled flying the flag. Replaced at night by an all round red, sometimes flashing.

I've personally seen this routinely in a lot of bunkering sites.
 
I have a set of flags of course, and also a copy of a book by Bernard Hayman, the quondam Editor of “Yachting World” , with the title “Yacht Signalling”., from 1983. It’s mostly about radio and very out of date but he does say that the absolute minimum useful size of a signal flag on a yacht is one metre in the hoist and 1.25 metres in the fly.

I have flown “P” in good earnest, in a tidal port with the ebb about to set in...

If you find yourself in Norway without a courtesy flag you can make one out of H, W, and T. Don’t ask me how I know that.
 
capnsensible said:
Should you ever sail in an area where bunkering is frequently conducted, you will always see both the bunker barge and the vessel being fuelled flying the flag. Replaced at night by an all round red, sometimes flashing.

I've personally seen this routinely in a lot of bunkering sites.
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Well, I've never sailed (or noticed I have) in an "area where bunkering is frequently conducted".
Like most yotties I refuel in marinas or from cans on my mooring and the shenanaigans of warships or panamaxes when refuelling are somewhat remote to my ken, as they are to every other yottie - at least - those I've ever met.

The concept of 'bunkering' a ship is not one that translates in any meaningful way to putting 50l of dieso into a 10m yacht and I respectfully suggest that it really isn't relevant.

Would you really rig signal flags when refuelling the outboard - a far more hazardous evolution than taking on diesel?
 
Old Bumbulum said:
Well, I've never sailed (or noticed I have) in an "area where bunkering is frequently conducted".
Like most yotties I refuel in marinas or from cans on my mooring and the shenanaigans of warships or panamaxes when refuelling are somewhat remote to my ken, as they are to every other yottie - at least - those I've ever met.

The concept of 'bunkering' a ship is not one that translates in any meaningful way to putting 50l of dieso into a 10m yacht and I respectfully suggest that it really isn't relevant.

Would you really rig signal flags when refuelling the outboard - a far more hazardous evolution than taking on diesel?
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Cmon no side slipping. You said the signal flag was never intended for diesel fuel when it's clearly in use all over the globe all the time.

Of course I don't fly one on a yacht whilst fuelling, duh.

Anyway should you ever meet any of the thousands of those who have sailed in Gibraltar Bay, East of Malta, the roads off Panama to name but three of gazillions of places where bunkering is conducted, then you would be enlightened.
 
Actually, you can add Falmouth to that list. A couple of weeks ago whilst delivering a yacht from Lanzarote to Falmouth, we passed a vessel being bunkered in the roads there. Red flag flying on both.
 
capnsensible said:
Actually, you can add Falmouth to that list. A couple of weeks ago whilst delivering a yacht from Lanzarote to Falmouth, we passed a vessel being bunkered in the roads there. Red flag flying on both.
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Plenty of bunkering in Southampton too, but I've never checked what signal flags they might be flying.

On the subject of the thread, we have a small selection of courtesy flags on board, plus ensigns and burgees, but the only International Code of Signals flag carried is Q.

Pete
 
I have not looked assiduously at every vessel who carries fuel but most have a permanent flag, a large rectangular piece of red painted steel (I assume it is steel) attached in a prominent position. Vessels they are servicing carry and fly large red flags - which are removed when the exercise is complete.

I note the comment on flag size which agrees with my ideas that the ones we, personally, carry are for decorative purposes only, being far too small.

We have part of the Australian Navy dive school, HMAS Penguin, adjacent to where we lunch our dinghy, they use the Alpha flag for 'divers down'.

Jonathan
 
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capnsensible said:
Flag W I require medical assistance.
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Medical assistance? Pah. It's only a scratch (from a rat). You've just come from foreign. If your vessel was healthy and you were requesting free pratique you'd fly the q flag. But in this case you require medical clearance. One more flag will do. you have a standard signal flag roll...This was actually from *my* yachtmaster exam (in the naughties...)
 
Sailed past a Maltese registered but Greek owned tanker berthing at Fawley last week blithely flying a Union flag as a discourtesy flag.



Sadly, she’s owned by the Lemos family, who have been shipowners for two hundred years and who most certainly do know better.

On the other side of the Channel the Dutch feeder containership ESCAPE was happily hooking up het pilot ladder in a manner deprecated by all right thinking seamen:



O brave new world, that has such people in it.
 
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Minn said:
Sailed past a Maltese registered but Greek owned tanker berthing at Fawley last week blithely flying a Union flag as a discourtesy flag.
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I thought it looked more like a St George's cross when I first zoomed in on it... perhaps the master is an English football hooligan.
Zooming even further I'm not so sure but it does not look like a Union flag

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Hi Vic; the sun was behind it by the time I dig my phone out and snapped it; whatever it was made of, it wasn’t flag bunting but it was a Union flag - which was what caused me to try to take a picture. You will notice the Maltese ensign (“H” + George Cross) at the stern ... not!
 
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Minn said:
Hi Vic; the sun was behind it by the time I dig my phone out and snapped it; whatever it was made of, it wasn’t flag bunting but it was a Union flag - which was what caused me to try to take a picture. You will notice the Maltese ensign (“H” + George Cross) at the stern ... not!
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I can see what looks like an ensign on a staff at the stern but it is not flying.
 
capnsensible said:
Actually, you can add Falmouth to that list. A couple of weeks ago whilst delivering a yacht from Lanzarote to Falmouth, we passed a vessel being bunkered in the roads there. Red flag flying on both.
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My one time home port Durban is a compularey pilot port and one of the busiest in Africa so lots of bunkering takes place in sight of the marina.
 
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