^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

San Juan Island Yacht Club (U.S.)

Washington

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 13 February 2011

Description of the flag

See also:

Description of the flag

Gayle Rollins, manager of the SJIYC, helped me write a report for the San Juan Island Yacht Club:

The burgee of the San Juan Island Yacht Club (www.sjiyc.com/) was adopted on 16 July 1964. It's 3:5, consisting of five stripes of blue and yellow parallel to its lower edge. No specific meaning is known for the colours or the design. The club flies a flag with this design and ratio from the clubhouse as well.

With Gayle's help, I found the relevant article of the club's by-laws www.sjiyc.com/ByLaws.htm#_Toc34534376:
Article X Distinguishing Signals, Pennants, Etc.

Section 1. The Club Signal. The Club signal shall consist of a pennant having five equal-width stripes of alternating blue and gold parallel to the lower edge of the pennant, the bottom stripe being blue.
Section 2. The Commodore, when afloat, shall fly a blue rectangular flag with a white fouled anchor encircled with thirteen white stars.
Section 3. The Vice Commodore, when afloat, shall fly a red rectangular flag with a white fouled anchor encircled with thirteen white stars.
Section 4. The Rear Commodore, when afloat, shall fly a white rectangular flag with a red fouled anchor encircled with thirteen red stars.
Section 5. The Fleet Captain, when afloat, shall fly a white rectangular flag with a blue fouled anchor in the center.
Section 6. The Secretary, when afloat, shall fly a blue rectangular flag with a white feather in the center.
Section 7. The Treasurer, when afloat, shall fly a blue rectangular flag with a white acorn in the center.
Section 8. Past Commodores, when afloat, may fly a blue rectangular flag with three white stars on the hoist and a white fouled anchor.

Though section 1 described the flag as blue and gold, the colours are considered blue and yellow, with the shades being used matching our Dark blue (B+) and Dark Yellow (Y+).

The officers flags mentioned are what Gayle calls "traditional" officers flags:
Commodore
Vice Commodore
Rear Commodore:
Fleet Captain:
Secretary
Treasurer
Past Commodores

Gayle excerpted for us the following description from the Club's History Page www.sjiyc.com/History:

It was a sunny day on the first Sunday in May 1964 that the San Juan Island Yacht Club was conceived. A group of new boat owners were working on their boats Saturday down at Jensen's Shipyard, and while they stopped for a rest and visited, someone suggested a picnic cruise to one of the other islands the next day. They agreed on Sucia... So it was.... a flotilla of seven boats that set out the next morning." (Marie Collins, May 1987 Mud Flat Monitor). While the group enjoyed a picnic around the bonfire, one man suggested that they try to start a new yacht club to have many more such trips. They all decided then and there to begin organizing the next day.

On Monday morning May 7, the group met and started the specific arrangements. On May 27, 1964, the San Juan Island Yacht Club was registered as a nonprofit corporation, with 102 charter memberships. The Club's objectives and organization were essentially as they are today. On May 28, the first Board was elected, and at that meeting one member suggested that a building committee be "named at once." That suggestion was declined.

The Club burgee was adopted on July 16, 1964, in the form that it exists today, although the record does not reflect that it is to be flown with the long blue edge down. By the end of July there were 203 memberships. During that and the following months, the Club cruising and meeting programs were developed.

Today, the San Juan Island Yacht Club does have its own clubhouse, and its membership has grown to over 300 active boaters.

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 13 February 2011