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Old 24-05-2016, 13:59   #1
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Courtesy Flags

Does anyone have any courtesy flags for sale, for the Bahamas, Caribbean, South America, and the South Pacific? You may contact me on this thread or privately.

Thanks,

Eric Sponberg
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Old 28-05-2016, 19:10   #2
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Eric, Sounds like you are headed out on an adventure. Thanks, I followed your advice on sizing wooden masts on my junk and made a good trip down to Cuba and other destinations. Fair winds. Ellis
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Old 29-05-2016, 06:14   #3
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Re: Courtesy Flags

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Eric, Sounds like you are headed out on an adventure. Thanks, I followed your advice on sizing wooden masts on my junk and made a good trip down to Cuba and other destinations. Fair winds. Ellis
Yes, we are--We're packing up and selling everything, hoping to leave this autumn for points south.
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Old 29-05-2016, 16:46   #4
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Well, good onya, Eric! Enjoy your cruising.

As to courtesy flags, not so many used ones for sale IME. Most of us keep them as mementos of our visits to new lands. What Ann and I have done is make them up from scratch when reasonably priced flags were not available. We carry a bag of spinnaker cloth scraps, picked up from a friendly sail loft, and a set of fabric paint marker pens. Some flags are easy to sew up, ie French, German, Dutch, etc. Others have elaborate patterns and fussy details. There we use the pens and hope that when hoisted to the spreaders no one will notice the lack of authenticity! And sometimes we just break down and pay the going price.

Cheers,

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Old 30-05-2016, 06:24   #5
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Re: Courtesy Flags

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Well, good onya, Eric! Enjoy your cruising.

As to courtesy flags, not so many used ones for sale IME. Most of us keep them as mementos of our visits to new lands. What Ann and I have done is make them up from scratch when reasonably priced flags were not available. We carry a bag of spinnaker cloth scraps, picked up from a friendly sail loft, and a set of fabric paint marker pens. Some flags are easy to sew up, ie French, German, Dutch, etc. Others have elaborate patterns and fussy details. There we use the pens and hope that when hoisted to the spreaders no one will notice the lack of authenticity! And sometimes we just break down and pay the going price.

Cheers,

Jim
Thanks, Jim. I suspect as much--I would likely do the same thing. Still, there is hope....

Eric
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Old 30-05-2016, 11:12   #6
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Look on eBay for strings of flags for the Caribbean. They are cheap, both price and quality. Buy some small grommets, cut the string as you need them, put in two grommets and you have a flag for less than $3.00. Flags will only last about about a month. For islands where you will spend more time, buy the real courtesy flags at Budget or IWW. Try to get linen over nylon blends, they last longer, but colors seem to fade faster than nylon.

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Old 31-05-2016, 09:05   #7
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Hi Eric,
I've just completed my Caribbean cruise and have courtesy flags for the Greater Antilles.
BVI,DR, PR, Cuba, Jamaica & Bahamas. Also have Q flag & USA flag. Would be happy to sell the lot.
Mike mikohottie@yahoo.com
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Old 01-06-2016, 09:13   #8
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Re: Courtesy Flags

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Hi Eric,
I've just completed my Caribbean cruise and have courtesy flags for the Greater Antilles.
BVI,DR, PR, Cuba, Jamaica & Bahamas. Also have Q flag & USA flag. Would be happy to sell the lot.
Mike mikohottie@yahoo.com
Thanks, Mike, I'll contact your through your email.
Eric
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Old 16-08-2016, 06:57   #9
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Re: Courtesy Flags--UPDATE

I have come up with what looks to be a nice and inexpensive solution for courtesy flags. We found a website called www.flagsimporter.com, located in Ontario, Canada, that sells international flags for many countries around the world. Beginning with larger flags at 3'x5' and 2'x3', the ones appropriate for courtesy flags are their 12" x 18" flags on a stick for the very low price of US$2.95 each. We bought just a Bahamas flag first to assess the quality, and they are made of 100% polyester and have printed designs and hemmed edges. They look very nice and are well detailed when there are crests or other icons on the flags. Besides the Bahamas flag, we bought an additional 30 flags for $105.10 which included the shipping.

The wood sticks on which they are mounted are 5/16" dia. with gold plastic finials on the top. We'll give these sticks away to some enterprising artist or crafts-person and keep the flags. I fashioned a 5/16" dia. aluminum rod that fits right through the sleeve on the luff of the flag, and I can hang the lot on the flag halyards on our boat.

As we travel, we can order other flags as we anticipate the countries that we'll visit and have them shipped to wherever we are.

In the photo below are all 31 flags in alphabetical order left to right, top to bottom:
Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba
Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, France, Grenada
Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique
Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico
St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Vincent, Trinidad/Tobago, Turks & Caicos, US Virgin Islands
Venezuela

They were out of flags for St. Lucia, so we'll have to get that one later.

I hope this is helpful information for others who are in search of inexpensive courtesy flags.

Eric
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Old 16-08-2016, 07:27   #10
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Thanks for the link Eric. We've been making our own as we go, but have to hoist them pretty high in order to avoid embarrassment. I hope to cross paths some day so I can show you the drum rudder arrangement on our boat that was inspired by those on one of your boats.
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Old 16-08-2016, 07:43   #11
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Re: Courtesy Flags

We bought a string of flags off amazon. We cut them apart, zig zag the ends to keep them from fraying and set the corners with gromets. 20 flags or so for about 25.00.
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Old 16-08-2016, 08:11   #12
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Re: Courtesy Flags

We had good success with the 12 x 18 stick flags. In trade wind conditions they typically last a month or two before getting too ratty. Several companies sell these and the one we bought from charged US$2 is you got 3 or more the same. A good idea is to get some extra British ensigns - red and blue along with scraps of spinnaker cloth in half a dozen colours. These can be basis of flags you can't buy. For example we made stars from ripstop and sewed them to a British ensign to make a Cook Islands flag.
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Old 16-08-2016, 08:26   #13
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Re: Courtesy Flags

Bookmarked, thanks Eric
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Old 16-08-2016, 12:55   #14
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Re: Courtesy Flags

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Originally Posted by mikereed100 View Post
Thanks for the link Eric. We've been making our own as we go, but have to hoist them pretty high in order to avoid embarrassment. I hope to cross paths some day so I can show you the drum rudder arrangement on our boat that was inspired by those on one of your boats.
Hi Mike, Nice to make your acquaintance. I am glad my rudder work has worked well for you. Perhaps we will cross paths one day. We are preparing to leave for the Bahamas and Caribbean come November, and points the rest of the way around the world after that. I saw you link to your sailblogs blog. We may use the same blog, something we have yet to set up.

Eric
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Old 16-08-2016, 12:57   #15
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Re: Courtesy Flags

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Originally Posted by AiniA View Post
We had good success with the 12 x 18 stick flags. In trade wind conditions they typically last a month or two before getting too ratty. Several companies sell these and the one we bought from charged US$2 is you got 3 or more the same. A good idea is to get some extra British ensigns - red and blue along with scraps of spinnaker cloth in half a dozen colours. These can be basis of flags you can't buy. For example we made stars from ripstop and sewed them to a British ensign to make a Cook Islands flag.
Thank for the extra info. Glad there is more than one source. Yes, we expect that these might wear out after awhile. But maybe we won't be in one each place all that long--we've got a lot of the world to see.

Eric
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