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Yachting, Sailing and Rowing Clubs (Canada)

Ensigns
Canadian yacht club officers

See also:

External Links:

American Yacht List of 1891

Ensigns

The Royal Canadian Yacht Club claims to have been founded in 1852, while the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron claims to be the oldest yacht club in North America, having been established in 1837, though it was then known as the Halifax Yacht Club.
David Prothero, 29 July 2006

The reason for that is that the Nova Scotia at one point took up the fallen mantle of the Halifax. Many members of the Halifax left when they disagreed with its commodore. They created the Nova Scotia, and when the Halifax died for lack of members, the Nova Scotia didn't even bother to get the rights figured out. They just claimed they were the Halifax, even though that had died.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 August 2022

Canadian clubs that had a plain Blue Ensign as their special ensign were:

Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club, Sydney, Nova Scotia. 1901.
Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club, St John, New Brunswick. 1899.
Halifax Yacht Club. 1862. Became Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in 1880.
Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, Montreal. 1894.

Clubs with a defaced Blue Ensign were:

Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto. 1878.
Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, Ontario. 1891.
Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club, Winnipeg. 1924.
Royal Victoria (BC) Yacht Club, Victoria. 1911.

In 1937 the nine Canadian yacht clubs were authorised to fly the Canadian Blue Ensign, and responsibility for Canadian special ensigns was transferred from the Admiralty to the Canadian Department of National Defence. Use of the Canadian Blue Ensign ended in 1965, but some yacht clubs continued to use their old special ensign, either the Canadian Blue Ensign, or the pre-1937 Blue Ensign defaced with the club badge, as a club-house land flag.
David Prothero, 13 March 2006

According to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club the Blue Ensign they used for the was defaced with a crown above the letters "VI" for Vancouver Island.
Dean McGee, 12 March 2006

Canadian yacht club officers

The Flag Shop's site shows 13 yacht club officer's flag apparently intended for a Canadian market. I'm not sure how commonly these are actually used, but do note that the Flag Outlet site also shows most of the same flags. Anyway, the flags are (alphabetically, presumably there is a more sensible order):

Commodore: White swallowtail with blue cross
Entertainment Chairman: White swallowtail with blue rectangle
Fleet Captain: Swallowtail with white cross, quarters alternating blue and red
Fleet Surgeon: White swallowtail with red cross
Membership Chairman: Blue swallowtail with white saltire
Past Commodore: Blue swallowtail with white rectangle
Purchasing Agent: Swallowtail vertical tricolour red-white-blue
Rear Commodore: Red swallowtail with white cross
Retired Commodore: White swallowtail with blue cross and blue R in upper canton
Secretary: Yellow swallowtail with red cross
Staff Captain: Swallowtail with white cross, quarters alternating yellow and blue
Treasurer: Red swallowtail with yellow cross
Vice-Commodore: Blue swallowtail with white cross
Jonathan Dixon, 4 August 2011

The set of yacht club officers flags at The Flag Shop provides short descriptions. I drew these flags from the images on the site. Though they are drawn on the site as 3:5, they are only on offer as either 2:3 or 3:4. I've used 2:3, as the median value. I've drawn all flags in the same shape. Since I've interpreted the flags with a cross as having a mute split, that means for the flags without cross the point of the split is a bit blunt. I hope to contact The Flag Shop for additional detail, though this may prove difficult as they appear to be a business without email.

I noticed that there are both Retired and Past Commodore flags in this set. I assume that the distinction is whether they still fill an active position (related to having been commodore) in the club or not, but I don't know which is which. Otherwise, I must say this system could easily be extended further, if clubs happen to have other officers.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 3 January 2015