Flying Local Courtesy Flags

Flying Local Courtesy Flags

As sailors we are in fact the only type of visitors that actually and visibly show their respect to the places and communities we visit.

In general, there is no legal requirement to fly a courtesy flag. It is simply a gesture of courtesy that a visiting vessel should fly the national flag when they enter and sails in foreign waters.

Local Flags

There’re numerous regions and islands that have their own local flag, beside their national flag.

If you are flying the local flag under the national flag, you’ll be entering into the true spirit of courtesy flag etiquette and doing the ‘right thing’.

This courteous local approach is especially welcomed e.g. in the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Atlantic, where a lot of French, British, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish islands have their own local flag.

When I was preparing for the World ARC, I spent quite some time investigating the flags I’d need. A lot of the places we planned to visit  were simply Islands or Archipelagos, not necessarily (sovereign) countries. During my research, I discovered that many of these small Islands have their own local / Island flag.

I haven’t completed my circumnavigation yet. As with all sailing plans, they’re written in jelly….

That did gave me some time to go over my initial list of courtesy flags and that’s when I decided to compile as comprehensive list as possible that could be shared with fellow sailors.

What started as an additional list to what I already knew, now had to be usable for everybody. Also, my original plan on places to visit, had to extend to all the places fellow sailors might want to visit following whatever route.

The result: a booklet with a list of over 200 local courtesy flags around the world with the information to fly them in a proper way.

Download your copy as a PDF file: https://shop.seayousailing.nl/