Why don't Cruisers Fly their National Flags?

[KP44]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Question: why don't cruising boats fly their national flag? I'm guessing, but I suspect it is over 1/2 that do not show their flag.

Are people ashamed of their flags/country? Or are they just lazy? Or trying to save money (flags don't cost that much)

Why do so few have a Radiotelephone License to use VHF in foreign waters?
Or a Vessel Radio Station grant so they may use sonar, VHF, and radar?
I think most cruisers are busy with their "cruising". Regulations only come to mind during check-in or departures.

The waters are full of good people with good intentions.

[Stonecutter36]

I have gone through 4 flags a year since 2006 and will continue to go through at least 4 per year .It is a legal requirement but also pride in saying how many miles I have traveled to get here.

[Cadence]

Are people ashamed of their flags/country? Or are they just lazy? Or trying to save money (flags don't cost that much)
You and Vinni are proud of displaying the
Danish Cloth, the oldest unchanged flag in the world.

[Stonecutter36]

Too add to the subject of flags why not PRINT your own if you have a colour printer aboard or access to one. Try this down-load a copy of the flag needed to be printed select BANNER mode on the printer , now load a piece of sail cloth into the printer and PRINT. the printer will print on both sides because the sail cloth is CLOTH and the ink will bled through. To make it last longer spray it with hair spray or lacquer to water proof the flag . I found that my printer would only print 11 by 14 inch flags good enough for the country your visiting but with a sewing machine you can sew one up for the larger ones needed.

[Gaia]

I do not agree with the premise. We have been on a slow circumnavigation of 23 years and find the vast majority fly their national flag. We fly our Canadian flag always but love the Beatles song Imagine ��

Jim

[cyan]

The most powerful navy in the world in a given era (among others) has been: Greek, Chinese, British, Japanese.
Do NOT underestimate the fun of flying the stars and stripes behind your boat while blasting "Flight of the Valkyries". (smells like victory)

[bluez06girl]

Very soon I will be purchasing my own boat. Are there any websites or stores that I should purchase my flags from if I want them to last more than a month??

[Tayana42]

I use Seaborn Flags in San Pedro, CA.

http://www.seabornflags.com/

[Lihuedooley77]

To each their own, but we fly the American Flag, and our state flags.....California, and also Hawaii when we lived there for for 10 years.

We have a proud but not noisy U.S. of America back ground . Yep, actually volunteered to serve this nation.

Grand father: U. S. Army WW 1
Step Dad : USMC. M/ Sgt WW2 . Pacific for the duration, and the Korea.
Myself: Volunteered, U.S. Naval Air, Okinawa, Japan, Vietnam

I

[Juho]

Originally Posted by LoudMusic

There was a picture posted on Reddit years ago of a row of houses on July 4th, each with their American flag proudly displayed. People were commenting that "in their country that would be considered inappropriate nationalism". I was STUNNED. As I recall, when probed all they would say is they were in northern Europe.

Most of my life I've had a 1.5 to 2 meter American flag on the front of my house. My boat has a 1m flag on a staff that we only take down when the weather is really nasty. And after hurricane Florence I raised a 2 meter flag to the top of the mast.

I'd like to get small (0.5m?) state flags for where I was born, where my wife was born, and where we grew up and were married (Texas, Missouri, Arkansas) to fly from the port spreader. I'd also like to have state flags to fly for whatever state we are in for courtesy flags, but I think that might be considered weird.

I just really like flags

https://i.imgur.com/hSNy3Zs.jpg

In Finland people fly the flag on special days, including private ones like weddings, birthdays and funerals, but not every day of the year. Maybe the idea is to reserve the use of the flag for special important days.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by Juho

In Finland people fly the flag on special days, including private ones like weddings, birthdays and funerals, but not every day of the year. Maybe the idea is to reserve the use of the flag for special important days.

Must mean that every day is special & important in the US, and when I'm out sailing my boat!

[Exile]

Originally Posted by cyan

The most powerful navy in the world in a given era (among others) has been: Greek, Chinese, British, Japanese.
Do NOT underestimate the fun of flying the stars and stripes behind your boat while blasting "Flight of the Valkyries". (smells like victory)

I've been told (but don't know if it's true) that, to this day, warships of every nation save one still dip their national ensigns when in sight of a British warship on the high seas. I assume it's out of respect for the Royal Navy's global dominance of the seas for so long. Probably not hard to guess the exception.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by Juho

In Finland people fly the flag on special days, including private ones like weddings, birthdays and funerals, but not every day of the year. Maybe the idea is to reserve the use of the flag for special important days.

At sea there are rules, and flying the flag of the registration country as well as the courtesy flag from dawn till dusk is compulsory.

This is part of seamanship and also a tradition.

The flags have also a legal meaning. The country of registration flag declares the vessel as territory of this country, where the laws are applicable and the courtesy flag declares, that the captain and crew recognizes and declares to respect the local laws of the guest country on board during the stay.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Carsten, what I think is the problem, is that people don't understand how quickly national flags wear out! It is that if you think when you leave that one will last, say, for 2 years.

What happens is that you've flown it for one year full time, and it's a lot shredded. So,, one year in advance of your schedule, you put up your spare, then cross from Panama to French Polynesia. And,voila, you're in the Marquesas, and your source of Danish flags is far across the globe, in a place where the tax on imported items is 50-100%. So you wait. Same problem in New Caledonia, nearest EU country, but same import probs.

If the Danish flag can be reasonably reproduced by a modest seamstress, that's the way to go--whether she's on your boat, or a local woman. Appropriate flag material is hard to come by. For years, we used sailmaker's cutoffs from their discard bins, and while spinnaker cloth is unsuitable for National Country flags, it is readily available, if you have the means on board of making your own. If it has to come to hand sewing, spinnaker cloth is reasonably easy to hand sew. Use #16 thread, if available. Mostly for hand sewing, I use #16 crewel needles. Can use thimbles, not sewing palms.

The real problem is that some flags (sorry, but out of China) are being sold, made of material that has extraordinarily little flap resistance, and so our most recent one has failed in less than one month!

Caveat emptor!

It is for me, quite frustrating to think I've ordered 3 yrs. supply, so find they barely go 3 months. Not a happy camper. The last one lasted less than 5 weeks.

So, that's the prob. Flags don't last as long as we hope.

Sorry,

Ann

Oh dear Ann,

We certainly recognized this problem before leaving Denmark and we put in a large stock (5 of the regular sized flags for flying when sailing and 3 of the mega-sized harbour flags we flags when at anchor).

We consider it a cost of sailing. We fly the swallow-tail flag, which is also the Royal flag and the flag of the armed forces. As a Danish yacht we are allowed to fly this and we carry a letter from the Department of Justice saying we have permission from the royal court to fly it.

We think it is sad if cruisers done show their flag - nothing is more fun that coming into and anchorage and seeing how many countries are represented

[Tillsbury]

I guess part of the difference is that in the USA you swear allegiance to “the flag”. Thus, the flag becomes the centre of what it means to be from there. In many other countries the allegiance is to the monarch or the republic, and the flag is just a secondary symbol.

For those who can’t understand what the issues are with flying the Stars and Stripes all over, I guess that one is reflected in the hoo-hah recently about the confederate flag being flown in public places. One person’s pride in their country of origin is another person’s grievance or perceived threat.

That’s why I like having an ensign rather than a national flag on the back of the boat.

Re: dipping, I didn’t know that other nations dipped to the Royal Navy. But anyone may dip as a recognition, and the navy ship used to respond. I’ve only done it once at sea (I suspect they don’t bother in inshore waters). If you dip your ensign to a navy ship you would immediately see a rush of crew to the stern dipping their own ensign. I don’t know if this is still the case.