rec.boats International On-Line Museum

This virtual museum reflects the international nature of the rec.boats Internet newsgroup. The museum's collection comes from boaters around the world who have swapped burgees, and other flags and mementos, in exchange for a rec.boats burgee (shown above, on the left). This burgee is flown on dozens of boats around the world.

You may purchase a rec.boats burgee if you wish, but the preferred method is to swap for an item which can be added to this collection.

(By the way, some folks have pinched this line of signal flags for their own web sites.  Feel free, but a credit and a link back would be appreciated.)

The Blue Ensign of the Royal Southern Yacht Club, in Southampton, is only permitted to be flown by right of a Royal Warrant from the Queen of England.  One hopes this only applies to vessels and not to web sites; if you find this page forwarded to the Tower of London you'll know the webmaster has transgressed one time too many.  This flag was donated by Geoff Heath. 

Way back in the dark ages (before Internet newsgroups) there were mailing lists. These days they're maintained by a Listserv.  Yacht-L is a virtual yacht club and a discussion list about sailing. It has been active since at least 1988 and Jim Bradley has been a co-owner since '93. In 1996 he designed this burgee for the mailing list. 

Paul Curtis sends a fine t-shirt from the Southern California Yachting Association 1996 Midwinters regatta.  The design on the back, shown here, includes the burgees of its twenty-eight member yacht clubs. 

This is a bit confusing, so hang on.  The burgee is from the Heavenly Twins Association, which is a cruising club for interested owners of catamarans, including the Heavenly Twins, which is an English catamaran with twin aft cabins.  Heavenly Twins is also the name of a book by a liveaboard couple named Jeffries who sailed the Carribean on a Heavenly Twins and wrote the book between ports.  Wait, there's more.  The Jeffries had twins who lived on the boat for their first three years.  Those twin cabins must have come in handy.  All this info and the flag contributed by David Brooks; any errors are mine. 

From the Stevens Institute of Technology, located on the banks of the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, comes this design from the offical T-shirt of their recently revitalized, student-organized Stevens Yacht Club.

Stevens Institute of Technology has a rich nautical heritage. It was founded in 1871 as a bequest of Edwin Stevens, brother of John Cox Stevens, the first commodore of the New York Yacht Club. John and Edwin were members of the syndicate that built the yacht America, which in 1851 defeated all English contenders to become the first winner of the trophy later named after her, the America's Cup. The brothers' father, Col. John Stevens, was a pioneer in the development of the steamboat. These highlights only touch on the nautical accomplishments of the Stevens family. 

This flag is a South African yachting ensign, sent courtesy of Alistair Barclay (alistair@fast.co.za) of Leraatsfontein, S.A. Alistair is a dealer for Mariner outboard engines, and also a diving boat inspector for the South African Underwater Union. 

The yellow burgee represents the Sauvie Island Yacht Club, located in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. and dedicated to sailboat cruising. Above it is the flag of the club's annual "Ladies Cruise." The flags were contributed by Anne Paul and Ray Brown (astpaul@teleport.com), who fly the rec.boats burgee while cruising on their Beneteau Oceanis 350 Sun Star. They also sent the May 1996 SIYC newsletter, which includes multipage letters from cruising members in New Zealand and Mexico.

Anne writes that many of the club's members are liveaboards, a bunch of them living in two of the marinas in the Multnomah Channel, off the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. "We donate to charities each year, from club dues, and from a Christmas sale held by the yacht clubs. We have had an ongoing project for the past year involving the making of quilts and bedding for two local women's shelters. You oughta see the people, men and women, working together with the gorgeous donated materials (this is high-end yuppie bedding stuff) to make something nice for those who have had to leave their homes. No, this is not just the "ladies," (and our women are not sissies) but guys, too. Think about it, who does most of the sail and canvas work, anyway? We also participate in the annual river clean up. Lots of garbage and mud, but a little cleaning up and we dig into another pot-luck on the dock." 

What better craft from which to fly the rec.boats burgee than the Microship, a folding 30 foot trimaran wired to the gills with audio, video, radio and, of course, computers. Steve Roberts (wordy@qualcomm.com) has donated to the rec.boats museum this handsome t-shirt, displaying his current nautical project, as well as its predecessor, Behemoth, a 580-pound, 105-speed, computerized, networked, technology-packed recumbent bicycle.

If you haven't already guessed, Steve's ongoing objective is to make his high-technology lifestyle completely mobile. For the story of his past adventures, and the current status of the Microship, which is now under development in Silicon Valley, California (where else?), visit the Nomadic Research Labs Web site. (If you look closely at the sketch of the Microship, you'll see the rec.boats burgee flying!) 

From Nuremberg, Germany comes this flag of the Free State of Saxony, one of Germany's new laender. While the standard flag of Saxony is just white and green (divided horizontally), this flag also shows the coat of arms of Saxony. Legally, it is confined to official State craft, although in fact many leisure boaters do fly it. The coat of arms dates back to the Dukes of Saxony (1180 - 1422). This flag was donated to the rec.boats International Museum by Gerd Weder (100552.100@CompuServe.com). 

More of Walt's boating stuff and home page.