Burgees – Do You Have a House Flag?
Update September 2015: The original house flag described in this blog post lasted three years. A bright new one represents Magnolia and its crew now.
Also known as an owners private signal, it's fun to have a burgee to represent you when you are aboard and in command. The flag goes with you. It can be representative of your name, your boat, a hobby. And burgees are fairly easy to make. You do need the right materials and a design. What symbol or design would be fun, easy to make and see from atop the flag halyard? What colors do you want (not too many)? What size and shape? A pennant or swallowtail or rectangle would be traditional for a house flag and Read more [...]
Susie Harris offered to share her blog post on flag making. Seamless Sailor has posted before on flags here. Susie's post adds some additional details and tips that I thought warranted this second post on flags.
Aboard Temptress of Down she is undertaking several sewing projects. She is a self-described "craft junkie with a sailing habit". Sounds like the perfect Seamless Sailor to me! Thanks, Susie, for providing insight on making courtesy flags.
Vexillology
12/30/2013
Minima YC Burgee - handmade by moi
...Vexillology is the study of flags and we've been studying them hard aboard Temptress for some weeks as every country expects visiting boats be they super tankers or the tiniest of yachts, to fly a courtesy 
Our good friends on Second Sally gave us a Bahamian courtesy flag when we bought our boat. Considering we were relatively newbies (and still are!), it seemed like they issued us a challenge - would we make it to the Bahamas so we could put the flag to use? It was an aspirational gift. We are on our way!
Bahamian FlagBahamian Courtesy FlagThere are a variety of flags to have aboard:
- Country flag or ensign
- Courtesy flags
- “Q” flag needed when initially entering a new country
- Decorative code flags
- Burgees for organizations and yacht clubs, and house flags
In this post I gave instructions for making a house flag. Making flags can save a bit of money as flags can be pricey. Flags can be made by hand or machine.