Flying a club burgee on a power cat!?!

[billp]

I went to a electronics seminar at our club on Saturday and everyone wanted to hear about our new boat, which we'll be bringing up from Camp Carol mid-April. Only one guy knew anything about the PDQ 41, so there was lots of interest.

Then someone asked, to no one in particular, where one flies a burgee on a power cat with two bows? No one had a clue...

I have to figure you all know the answer to this flag etiquette question....Where do you properly fly a club burgee on a PDQ?

[duetto]

we fly ours on little clamp on burgee "flagpole" dead center on bow rail.

[Tanah-Keeta]

Ditto what John said..

[Gadzooks!]

We fly ours from the starboard "spreader" (i.e. the starboard extremity of the antenna/radar/stern light tubing) on the mast. Unless we are in Canada, then we fly it from the port side as the Canadian courtesy flag, alone, goes on the starboard. We used ty-raps to attach a small carabiner for the upper corner of the burgee, and use a bungee cord from the bottom corner to the mast supports. We fly the US ensign from a staff on the flying bridge aft rail, to port of the stairs.

This corresponds to sailboat practice. My theory is that the bow mounting is tailored for craft with no mast or an insignificant mast. Since the PDQ has a prominent mast, I prefer the above. One reason is that a projection above the bow rail would sometimes interfere with handling of lines, for instance when one is rigging a bridle on the anchor rode.

[SecondWind]

A club Burgee is ususally flown from the Bowstaff on Power Boats. I would recommend looking at a recent copy of Chapmans to learn how to dress your vessel properly. Refer to the Power Squadron code for the same info: http://www.usps.org/f_stuff/etiquett.html

[Katlin]

It is interesting that we all seem to have arrived at differing solutions. I fly the burgee from the mast head, courtesy flag from the starboard 'spreader' and ensign from a wooden staff attached to the aft seat rail. Ensign flies above the dinghy in its davits and is a lot quieter than flying from the mast.
John Sawyer
Katlin 34/076

[Gadzooks!]

Yes, interesting. I default to Chapman when there is no good reason to do otherwise. I do like to keep the foredeck area as clear as possible for line handling -- setting a bridle as mentioned but also deploying crab traps and washing down/removing kelp from the anchor and rode. Also we usually tie up from the outer hull which can involve moving the dockline across the boat. Some Mainship boats have an interesting variation.....they have a permanent staff at the bow but extending DOWN from the rail. More out of the way but less satisfactory display. If I were to take the burgee off the mast, I'd probably put it on the starboard bow rail (like the national flag on the president's car!) where would be forward, prominent and out of the way. And perhaps the PDQ flag on the port! Or maybe an ex-commodore flag. I have flown the PDQ flag and state flags from the same hoist as the burgee (state flag above, PDQ below.)

The club burgee is low in the protocol hierarchy so where you fly it is of lesser importance. One sees all kinds of flag protocol violations out there ....the yacht ensign in foreign waters, flags on the same hoist as a national flag, national ensign on the bow, etc. Allows us in the know to feel superior!!

Where did flag protocol originate? Military? Commercial vessels? Undoubted somewhere standardization was highly desirable. Or else the crew would be free to do what struck them at the moment. An ex-navy and ex-merchant marine friend tells me the officers always had to check out the decorative display of signal flags as otherwise the crew would spell out something obscene instead of the Chapman-suggested order.

[billp]

I sent my question to Elbert "Mack" Maloney, long time editor of Chapmans. He is generally considered the last word on all things regarding nautical etiquette. He is still boating with his trawler at 92 years old. His response:

I have looked at photos of the PDQ-41 on the Internet and I would
say that you best selection would be a rail-mounted staff on the railing
around the bow at the starboard side of the opening as close to the
center-line as you can get. How does this sound to you? The only other
alternative would be from a radio antenna on the starboard side, and
that would be a definitely poorer choice.

Thanks for all of your comments!
BillP

[Gadzooks!]

Is there anything that says the burgee has to be a piece of cloth?

How about painting a burgee (or a burgee vinyl stick-on) on each side of the flybridge exterior? As far forward as possible before the surface turns athwartship. Would have its advantages --no hassle putting it up and down; no noisy flapping in a wind at night; more "readable" in calm conditions, cannot be forgotten; totally out of the way; could be combined with the boat name in some clever attractive fashion.

Readily available from folks who do boat-name stick-ons.