Royal Canadian Yacht Club

Last modified: 2022-11-19 by rob raeside
Keywords: royal canadian yacht club | beaver | crown | toronto yacht club |
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2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

• Royal Canadian Yacht Club
• Commodore's flag
  • Commodore's Broad Pennant
• Vice Commodore's flag
• Rear Commodore's flag (dormant)
• Past Commodore's flag
• Fleet Captain's flag
• Former blue ensign
• Junior Club flag
• Patron's flag
• Cruising Sailors' Squadron flag
  • The Edward M. Hodder Cruising Award
  • 50th Anniversary Flags
• Trans-Oceanic Award
• 1892 flags
• Toronto Yacht Club (1853)
• Toronto Yacht Club (historical)

See also:

• Yacht Clubs (Canada)
• Canada: Index of pages

Club Burgee
Triangular navy blue flag with a white St George's cross (width of arms 1/7th the hoist). The centre line of the vertical arm, 1/3rd of the hoist from the hoist. A gold royal crown with a red cap in the upper hoist, and a gold beaver in the lower hoist.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

The Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto, Canada, was established in 1852 as Toronto Yacht Club. It's one of the world's most important clubs. One of his members is Peter Edwards, Director of the Burgee Data Archives. This information is taken from the issue number 1 of Flagnaut (1998), the bulletin of the Canadian Flag Association.
Jose C. Alegria, 2 February 2000

From 'Annals of the RCYC'.
"From 'The Mail and Empire', May 30th, 1898.
The club at their annual meeting held a short time ago adopted a revised and up-to-date code of bye-laws and regulations prepared by Mr. Ricarde Seaver, Hon.Sec., after full inquiry respecting the usages of the leading English yacht clubs, and which were approved by a committee of members specially appointed to go over them.

The amendments made are for the most part matters of detail affecting only the members of the club and their friends, but the adoption of a new set of flags for the officers is a matter of public interest. It was pointed out to the special committee that the flags hitherto used were of a pattern and arrangement long out-of-date, and it was considered well to follow the example of leading English yacht clubs whose officers' flags are composed of the club burgee with suitable distinguishing variations or, to use the heraldic term, 'differences'.

In these examples, the officers' flags are precisely the same pattern as the burgee, the triangular shape being altered to a fork-tailed pennon, the commodore's flag being differenced only by the forked fly, the vice commodore's by the introduction of a ball or roudle (sic) in the hoist, and the rear commodore's by two balls in the hoist. To follow this pattern of flag and manner of differencing literally would not be practicable for the RCYC whose burgee contains already devices in the hoist which will not permit of any other being introduced to advantage, and to place distinguishing devices in the fly would be practically useless, as they could seldom, if ever, be made out readily as would be requisite.

The special committee therefore adopted a method of differencing commonly used in heraldry, namely, change of colour. The flags therefore which will now appear on officers' yachts will be fork-tailed pennons of the pattern of the burgee, but with change of the colours as follows:- For the commodore, white with a blue cross, the crown and beaver being red; for the vice-commodore, blue with a yellow cross, crown and beaver yellow; and for the rear commodore, red with white cross, and yellow crown and beaver."
David Prothero, 3 July 2010

The beaver is from the 1860-something seal of Toronto, where the club is based.
David Prothero, 22 July 2010

2:3, image by Clay Moss, 11 July 2010

A white swallow-tail, proportions 2:3, with a blue cross of St. George. A red B. Crown on the upper hoist and a red beaver on the lower hoist.
Jose C. Alegria, 2 February 2000

Design of Commodore's, Vice-Commodore Fleet's, Vice Commodore's and Past Commodore's Flags.
A rectangular swallow-tailed flag with a cross of St George (width of arms 1/5th the hoist). The centre line of the vertical arm midway between the hoist and the crutch. Swallowtail, crutch to imaginary vertical line between tails, 1/5th the length of the flag. Crown in upper hoist, beaver in lower hoist.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

Commodore's Broad Pennant

2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

The commodore may choose to fly a broad pennant instead of his Flag. A tapered, swallow-tailed, white flag with a navy blue St George's cross (width of arms 1/6th the hoist). The centre line of the vertical arm midway between the hoist and the crutch. A red royal crown in the upper hoist and a red beaver in the lower hoist. Horizontal distance between imaginary line joining tails and crutch, 3/5th of hoist; distance between tails, 3/5th of hoist.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

2:3, image by Clay Moss, 2 July 2010

Same design, blue with white cross, golden crown and beaver.
Jose C. Alegria, 2 February 2000

At the 1971 AGM: "... the Committee of Management was restructured. The major change was the introduction of five vice-commodores ... "
Annals of the RCYC. Vol. III. p. 99
Peter Edwards, 27 August 2017

Rear Commodore's flag

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

The Rear Commodore's flag is currently dormant. There is no club RC per se at this time.
Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

At the 2016 AGM five rear-commodores were elected and also one vice-commodore to be commodore-elect.
Peter Edwards, 27 August 2017

Past Commodore's flag

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

Same design, blue with white cross, coloured crown and beaver.
Jose C. Alegria, 2 February 2000

The Past Commodore's flag is based on the burgee, which is to say it is a rectangular navy blue flag, swallow-tailed, with a white St George's cross, gold crown with red cap in the upper hoist, gold beaver in the lower hoist.
Nick Harnack, 15 June 2009

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 2 July 2010

Same design, blue the upper hoist and the lower fly, red the upper fly and the lower hoist, with the crown and the beaver in gold.
Jose C. Alegria, 2 February 2000

Former blue ensign

 1:2, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

Junior Club Flag

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

Same design as the Club Burgee but with a white J in a red square centred on the cross of St George. The square twice the width of the cross.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

Patron's Flag

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

Rectangular version of the Club Burgee.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

Cruising Sailors' Squadron Flag

 2:3, image by Clay Moss, 18 July 2010

Same as design as Commodore etc., except flag gold, cross blue with arms width 1/8th hoist. Rectangular Club Burgee design, fimbriated gold, in the upper hoist.
David Prothero, 6 July 2010

The Edward M. Hodder Cruising Award

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 7 August 2022

Flag: same design as the Cruising Sailors' Squadron flag except with White field and Blue cross. This flag does not replace the club's Burgee.
The award was established in 2004 and is presented to those RCYC members who visit and stay overnight at 42 specified ports and anchorages in Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands. It is modeled on the booklet "The Harbours and Ports of Lake Ontario" (1857) by the RCYC’s then Commodore Edward Hodder, one of the founders of the former Toronto Yacht Club (1852).
Ref: Booklet, 3rd. Edition 2014.
Peter Edwards, 19 October 2017

The cross on the Hodder Cruising Award Flag is red (not blue).
With thanks to Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg for noticing my error.
Peter Edwards, 14 April 2018

50th Anniversary Flags

image by Rob Raeside, 14 June 2018

Swallowtail circa. 3:4 and :3 to crutch. White field superimposed by the Squadron’s blue, white, and gold 50th. anniversary logo.
Source: photograph courtesy of Bill and Trish Brennan.
Peter Edwards, 8 June 2018

Table flag

image by Rob Raeside, 14 June 2018

Pennant 4:5. Gold field superimposed by the Squadron’s blue, white, and gold 50th. anniversary logo.
Source: unknown donor.
Peter Edwards, 8 June 2018

Trans-Oceanic Award

image by Rob Raeside, 27 August 2018

Pennant: 3:16 (photo image). Gold field superimposed at the hoist with the Club's burgee.
Source: With thanks to Michael Newbury, 2018 award winner.

"20.14 A Club Burgee of proper design and proportions superimposed on a gold tapered fly extending from hoist 20% of the length overall of the boat skippered by the Member on the ocean crossing. Proportions 1:6."
Source: RCYC Rules and Regulations. November 18, 1998.

Note: Rules and Regulations Section 20:14 is currently under review.
Peter Edwards, 27 August 2018

Flags in 1892

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 October 2022

This image shows what an 1891 ensign looked like, or at least as it is pictured in Manning's. The cap is red, but it's small, and still the gold dominates the crown. And it's not centred in the lower fly, as one might expect, but is actually quite close to that lower fly's top.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 October 2022

Officers' Distinguishing Flags 1892.

image located by Peter Edwards, 11 March 2018

Commodore's Distinguishing Flag: Rectangle. 4.5:6.5 (image). Red field with yellow crown in centre.
Vice-Commodore: Same design as Commodore except white field with blue crown.
Captain: Same design as Commodore except blue field with yellow crown.
Source: Manning's Yacht Register, 1892.
Peter Edwards, 11 March 2018

I don't have a copy of Manning's Yacht Register, 1892, but in 1891, they had an ensign similar to the former blue ensign (see Captain's flag, below). Manning's has the crown a bit smaller, and with the cap red, but you get the idea.

The burgee is simple. Manning's for 1891 displays a version with the Ontarian long leg beaver, but other than that it's clearly the same burgee that is used today.

Officers' flags

The commodore's flag is the red flag shown above.

Vice-commodore

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 7 August 2022

Captain

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 7 August 2022

Toronto Yacht Club (1853)

"The above design was adopted as the Club flag for the season 1853." Image and quote: Club's Minute Book 1853.
Burgee: Pennant 2:3. Red field superposed by a white St. George cross centred 1 unit from hoist.
On the receipt of a letter from Government House, Quebec, dated 4 August 1854, the TYC assumed the title "Royal" and became the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. Snider, C H J. Annals of the RCYC. The Club: Toronto. 2002.
Peter Edwards, 19 November 2017