Wednesday 18 May 2016

Country Flags

Cruising overseas must include understanding the correct protocol for flying the flag for the country you are visiting. Only once you have been granted clearance can you remove your Q flag (Quarantine) and then fly the country flag you are in.

Basically at all times of being 'in country' you must fly the countries flag higher than your own countries flag as a token of respect. Visiting country flags should be flown from the spreader on the starboard side.

Your country flag (ensign) should be flown lower and the flag should be smaller than the country you are in. However, this is not a generalized rule for all countries. Countries like Indonesia for example are extremely proud of their countries flag, we were told that it insulting for a visiting vessel to bear a smaller Indonesian country flag than their vessels home port ensign - this is not the case. You still must fly the Indonesian courtesy flag higher than your home countries but it can be a smaller courtesy flag.

Boat flag etiquette can be found all over the internet, this link is one example.

We purchased all our country flags from an Ebay shop for a great price and combined postage.

Our ensign is 1150 x 560 and we purchased all our visiting country flags size 1500 x 900 (all in mm).

** Foot note March 2017. Reflecting back we did not need such large courtesy flags. We could have gone with the smaller ones. The large ones sometimes get tangled up in supports etc. Keep in mind the flags we took did last longer than the visa so we were good. We then purchased locally made flags for good prices when the old ones wore out


Indonesian Flag

Malaysian Flag

Singapore Flag

Thailand Flag



Q-flag (for Quarantine) 

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