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Great Loop signal/trophy burgees (U.S.)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

The Great Loop
Burgees
Pole flags

See also:

The Great Loop

The Great Loop is a boating route that goes through most of the eastern United States (and optionally parts of Canada), through the Mississippi all the way between Chicago and New Orleans, around the coast of Florida and the eastern seaboard, through the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and back again, or the other way around, with some alternative stretches. See map at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GreatLoop.png, showing some of the possible paths.

Burgees

Boaters who are on the loop often fly a white burgee, and those who have completed the loop fly a gold one.
http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2011/october/hurry.asp

The color burgees mentioned, used to signal past and present “loopers”, are regulated by AGLCA - America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, and there are three basic types (white, golden, and platinum), sharing a common design: They are all 2:3 stubby tapering flags, forked by a ~90° notch at the fly, and with dark blue edging on all free sides. They bear the association’s logo on the center, filling up most of the flag area, and the letters "AGLCA" vertically along the hoist, in dark blue bold serifless capitals.

The logo consists of a simplified map showing the Great Lakes in blue and U.S. states in thin black outlines (not pictured Maine and anything west of the Illinois-Alabama line, notably excluding Lousiana), and a thick red line showing one of the possible routes, with four arrow heads (red with negative chevron intersection) indicating a preference for the anticlockwise direction; conspicuous black "TM" in lightweight serifless capitals where the Bahamas would be.

The reverse of all these shows correct reading maps and letters, meaning that it is a double-sided flag; it’s not a case of full vertical flip of the obverse (“flopped”), though, as the initialism stays on the hoist side.

At https://www.greatloop.org/product/gold-burgee.html and foll. see diagrams of these flags for sale; the size is given as 12×18 inches.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

White burgee

images by António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Gray-edged version

images by António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 February 2024

At https://www.passagemaker.com/greatloop/gold-loopers-2020 photos of loopers showing off their burgees: There seems to be a difference between the official diagram showing blue edging on the white burgee at https://www.greatloop.org/product/white-burgee.html and actual items as photographed, with grey edging, contrasting with the blue letters and lakes, shown in the diagram in identical color. The background is consistently white, as are the arrow chevrons, with the map filled in golden yellow.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Golden burgee

images by António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 February 2024

The background is golden yellow, as are the arrow chevrons, with the map filled in white.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Platinum burgee

images by António Martins-Tuválkin, 22 February 2024

Awarded to those who completed more than one loop: The background is light grey, as are the arrow chevrons, with the map filled in golden yellow.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Plain red burgee

images by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 February 2024

There is also a red burgee with no logo, otherwise identical, with dark blue edging and hoist lettering; from what I could gather this is a positional color reserved for AGLCA office holders: https://www.passagemaker.com
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Pole Flags

The AGLCA website offers also a separate range of 3×5 ft flags, "suitable for a flag pole at your dock, marina, or business." In spite of the ratio discrepancy, these are said to be identical ("duplicate") to the burgee but "made from a lighter material", which I presume means that the obverse is not readable. These flags are available in all three looper patterns, and 3 additional sponsor levels (red, green, and blue).
The image that illustrates this item (https://archive.ph/8r5jC) shows 6 identical burgees, though, differing only in the background colors: https://www.greatloop.org/product/3-x-5-burgee-for-land-based-flag-pole.html
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024

Lacking photographic evidence, it’s unclear what these look like; being hoisting flags "made from a lighter material" suggests that they are rectangular 3:5, not 2:3 tappering and notched, but if so they are not really "duplicate" patterns, and 3 additional sponsor levels (red, green, and blue). The image that illustrates this item (https://archive.ph/8r5jC) shows 6 identical burgees, used to generate the images below, as depicted in the diagram image (not photographic) shown in the official website, which seems to contradict the text thereon. We may find out that these are mere flagoids, unintentionally created by digital recoloring of the burgee diagrams, and that the actual sponsor flags exist only as rectangular 3:5.
https://www.greatloop.org/product/3-x-5-burgee-for-land-based-flag-pole.html
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 February 2024