Courtesy Flags

[Sua Sponte]

Hello, wanted thoughts on courtesy flags. The ones I've seen are cheap and don't look like they will last a day. I don't want to spend a fortune on them but would like something nice. Should I buy packs in advance or purchase them as I arrive at the location?

[SVHarmonie]

Originally Posted by Sua Sponte

Hello, wanted thoughts on courtesy flags. The ones I've seen are cheap and don't look like they will last a day. I don't want to spend a fortune on them but would like something nice. Should I buy packs in advance or purchase them as I arrive at the location?

In general... you’ll get a much better buy shopping around before you arrive. Deal with suppliers who sell to the serious marine market, not cheap “holiday flags.” Bluewater Charts In Fort Lauderdale has a complete selection. They aren’t cheap, but they are properly made flags that will last more than a week or two.

There are a lot of people who will give you all kinds of advice on how to make your own with a couple magic markers and spit. But I figure even if I spent $40 on a courtesy flag, it’s an insignificant expense compared to what I spent to get there and what I’ll spend there.

[Nicholson58]

Buy good quality as noted above.

We apply seam sealer as sold in camping supply to the seams and the entire flag to prevent shredding.

[JPA Cate]

We used to make ours. Went to the sailmaker, and with permission, raided their spinnaker cuttings bin, fabric that was otherwise going to be thrown out. Then, made the flag before entering the country. Even made from light spinnaker cloth, you might need two of them if you're allowed to stay 3 months. If there is a difficult emblem to copy, you can use thin paper to trace it, and I used carbon paper to transfer it. Might have to figure out another way these days, eh?

Some places we went in the South Pacific, you could not buy their flags.

Ymmv.

Ann

[AiniA]

We used a variety of approaches. For flags you will use often or for long periods buy good ones - France is a good example. For places you will stay a month or less buy cheap ones - we got the kind used to sit on a desk with a stick (bonus, you get free sticks). These are something like US$4. We got a few, South Africa and Brazil come to mind that were made for people to put on their cars during the World Cup. After the WC they were very cheap and good quality since they were designed to last at 100 km/h. We made some, you can't buy a Cook Islands flag as far as we could see. We used spinnaker cloth and also made some from extra UK red and blue ensigns we bought cheap.

[JPA Cate]

Yes, one could re-use the UK flag part, too.

Ann

[Franziska]

Fun story to the subject :-)

We shared the approach to buy the courtesy flag in the last harbour before entering a new country.
Having mostly lived in countries where neighbouring states are friendly to each other we did not expect any issue with this.

Well, until you come to Georgia (as in next to Russia and Turkey, not the US State).
At the time they were not big fans of each other. So we could not get a Russian flag.
But, there was a market, so we bought a pair of red ladies knicker, a blue shirt and a white towel and found a friendly lady who promised to sew it together.

While waiting for that to happen a fair number of her colleagues gathered, curious about those folks from the west (us!).
And we ended up fairly drunk as they asked us to join them drinking chitchat (home brew vodka). Luckily we did not loose our eyesight and happily went back to the boat with our blue&white&red flag.
Few hours later & a tad more sober I look at the flag and it looks strangely familiar. Naaah, that's not a Russian flag, can't be???

Turns out she must have thought we're Dutch and put together a Dutch flag :-)

Sitting in the very small "yacht club" in Poti the night before heading for Russia we get talking to the captain of a huge US freighter delivering US Aid grain to Georgia.
He hears of our predicament and asks his deck hand to go fetch their Russian courtesy flag for us, as they ".. won't be going to Russia anytime soon".
Few minutes later the poor guy arrives soaking wet from the rain with a huge flag (about 2m x 3m).

Thank you!

Still, as we are on a small 8m sailboat, it's a bit oversized, so that I end up restitching the Dutch flag in the right order to create a Russian flag when approaching the Russian coast at Sotchi.
I was a bit afraid they would think we are taking the p.. s out of them. Our own flag at the time was 0.3m x 0.4m.

Looking back at it, after our visit to Russia though, I do not think that would have been a big issue, their national ego, as much as the Turkish one is huuuge :-)

We enjoyed visiting all of the countries over there, even though corruption was an issue in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria, but that's another long story.
The private people we met where very kind and friendly everywhere.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Fun story to the subject :-)

We shared the approach to buy the courtesy flag in the last harbour before entering a new country.
Having mostly lived in countries where neighbouring states are friendly to each other we did not expect any issue with this.

Well, until you come to Georgia (as in next to Russia and Turkey, not the US State).
At the time they were not big fans of each other. So we could not get a Russian flag.
But, there was a market, so we bought a pair of red ladies knicker, a blue shirt and a white towel and found a friendly lady who promised to sew it together.

While waiting for that to happen a fair number of her colleagues gathered, curious about those folks from the west (us!).
And we ended up fairly drunk as they asked us to join them drinking chitchat (home brew vodka). Luckily we did not loose our eyesight and happily went back to the boat with our blue&white&red flag.
Few hours later & a tad more sober I look at the flag and it looks strangely familiar. Naaah, that's not a Russian flag, can't be???

Turns out she must have thought we're Dutch and put together a Dutch flag :-)

Sitting in the very small "yacht club" in Poti the night before heading for Russia we get talking to the captain of a huge US freighter delivering US Aid grain to Georgia.
He hears of our predicament and asks his deck hand to go fetch their Russian courtesy flag for us, as they ".. won't be going to Russia anytime soon".
Few minutes later the poor guy arrives soaking wet from the rain with a huge flag (about 2m x 3m).

Thank you!

Still, as we are on a small 8m sailboat, it's a bit oversized, so that I end up restitching the Dutch flag in the right order to create a Russian flag when approaching the Russian coast at Sotchi.
I was a bit afraid they would think we are taking the p.. s out of them. Our own flag at the time was 0.3m x 0.4m.

Looking back at it, after our visit to Russia though, I do not think that would have been a big issue, their national ego, as much as the Turkish one is huuuge :-)

We enjoyed visiting all of the countries over there, even though corruption was an issue in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria, but that's another long story.
The private people we met where very kind and friendly everywhere.

Just for good order, what you drank in Georgia was chacha, not "chitchat", and it's homemade grappa (made from byproducts of wine-making), not vodka. It packs a whallop but it's delicious, and it's safe if you can manage to extract yourself from the toasting and cut yourself off in time.

[Franziska]

Thanks for clearing that up, it's been a while :-)
I was lucky that I did not quite have to drink as much as my brother was made too.
Guess he still has a headache thinking of this episode after all those years.