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North Palm Beach Yacht Club (U.S.)

Florida

image by Rob Raeside, 17 June 2019

Description of the flag

See also:

Description of the flag

Estb: 1959. Location: 951 U.S. Hwy. #1, North Palm Beach.
Burgee: Pennant circa 5:7 (web image).
"Good flag design requires a burgee to be unique and identifiable at a distance. It should also be “readable” from both sides, and the canvas strip along the hoist (the vertical part of the flag that attaches to the staff) should not be part of the design. The [original] NPBYC burgee violated all of those rules [of good flag design]. It was meant to be a white “N” against a blue background, with a white horizontal stripe running the length of the burgee and divided a top yellow half from a blue bottom half. The letter N can’t be read from both sides, nor is it unique. And whoever designed the NPBYC burgee used the canvas strip as part of the design – making it the first leg of the N.”X” Fortunately there was a solution: a 1959 copy of Lloyd’s Register showed a blue North Palm Beach Yacht Club burgee with a white ship’s wheel around a boat outlined in a sunrise, and the letters NPB in a fat block style that was “modern” in the 1950’s. All we had to do was go back to the original burgee, lop off the letters, divide it vertically and plug in the existing blue and gold colors. We had a new 1997 burgee that met all the rules of good flag design and preserved the history of the club from its very founding . . . "
Source: accessed 12 June 2019,
https://npbyachtclub.org/about-the-club/the-burgee/
"North Palm Beach Yacht Club can trace its roots back to 1959 when the developers of North Palm Beach set up a yacht club as part of the overall village plan. . . . Without a real home, the Club itself struggled on for about a dozen years, and then quietly dissolved. But a yacht club had been born in North Palm Beach, and the desire for a club was too strong to just go away. . . . In 1975 Edwin F. Schwarzer, who then owned the North Palm Beach Marina, and his brother Fred M. Schwarzer who managed the place, joined with some village residents and incorporated the North Palm Beach Cruise and Yacht Club . . . Not only was the club’s name different, but to further distinguish it from its predecessor the members adopted a burgee designed by Robert Unger:
It had a blue and gold triangular field superimposed with a white “N”. . . . In 1982, the members voted to change the name of the Club from “North Palm Beach Cruise and Yacht Club” to “North Palm Beach Yacht Club”. . . Ed Schwarzer sold the North Palm Beach Marina to Old Port Cove Holdings in 1988 and once again the club found itself without a home. In spite of everyone’s best efforts, activities declined and members drifted away. . . . In 1997, the eighteen remaining Club members made a commitment to renewal."
Source: accessed 12 June 2019,
https://npbyachtclub.org/about-the-club/club-history/
Peter Edwards, 16 June 2019

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 8 October 2022

This is about the 1997 burgee change. The problematic design was that of the pre-1997 burgee. Lloyds' 1963 shows that the current design isn't quite as similar to the probably first burgee as this description makes it seem, but the post-1997 flag is clearly derived from the older design.
That would mean that the first North Palm Beach Yacht Club was approximately 1959-1961. Lloyd's still shows its burgee for 1963, but the club may not have been active any more at that point. The probably first design belongs with this club only.

The 1982 reference is to the second North Pam Beach Yacht Club; it has no relation to the first, and initially its name and burgee clearly stated they had nothing to do with the first one. The Unger design and the post-1997 burgee belong with this second North Palm Beach Yacht Club; they have no relation to the first.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 15 August 2019