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Displaying items by tag: Flag Etiquette

#CourtesyFlag - An Afloat reader contacted us after spotting the German naval corvette F264 Ludwigshafen am Rhein, currently docked at Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin.

However, he noticed that the ship was flying her Irish courtesy flag on her port yardarm, often considered inferior to the starboard, or 'superior', yardarm, as dictated by flag etiquette for international vessels.

Is this an intentional insult? More likely it's just a clash of cultures, as flag etiquette has no hard or fast rules, and many nations differ as to how their vessels should fly their flags whether in home or foreign waters.

But what do you think? Has the German navy made a massive blunder? Or is it all just a storm in a teacup? (see our facebook page comments below!)

Der Klanger? A German Corvette docks in Dublin but is her Irish Tricolour a 'Faux Pas' on the Liffey? Read more below:

Posted by Afloat Magazine on Saturday, 26 September 2015

Let us know in the comments below too!

Published in Your Say

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago