Flag up or down

I use to take it down at night in all situations when not underway.

Down at sunset

Up at 0800, down at sunset.

Up all the time at sea.

Which flag?

In the Med it is usually the red thing hanging aft 24/24...

The flag goes down when the anchor light is on at sunset. Or basically sunset to sunrise. In a chance of reduced visibility during daylight hours, I would leave the flag up and use the anchor light.

Flag

The national flag is flown at the stern of the boat, either from 2/3 of the way
up the leech of the aftermost sail, or from a staff at the stern. It is flown from
0800 to sunset when at anchor, day and night underway. We also see it
correctly flown in these waters from the starboard spreader of a foreign
vessel which is displaying its own national colors at the stern. These are the
only correct displays of national colors on a boat, and no other flag (other
than, in U.S. waters, the yacht ensign) should be flown in the place of the
national flag.

In the Med, on the IYCA dock (where the big boats are stern-to) we used to syncronize the flag drop at sunset between all the boats. The guests used enjoy the spectacle when it was smartly done.

Certain Captains and Owners just don't seem to care these days, as they did not have it drummed into them from an early age.

When you start getting into Royal flag etiquette, the fun really starts. Who 'dips' to whom etc.......nightmare.

Flags

There was a time, not too long ago when the police would haul you over and ticket you for not flying the Cdn flag specially if you were commercial, one is still expected to dip when passing a ship of the "Queens" Navy, i have had quests on board who wondered what the blazes I was up to.

This is how we do in Sweden too, but in the summer we take it down at 9 PM when the sun sets later. The Midnight Sun you know...

Up at 0800, and down at sunset here as well. At the dock or on the hook(365).

Dip ?

Like in bow or tip your hat ?

Dipping the Ensign and Burgee.--
The ensign is lowered or dipped as a means of saluting a commodore, &c., or member of a club. The junior member should be the first to dip. Sometimes, if no ensign is flying, the burgee is dipped ; but this strictly is contrary to the etiquette of the Royal Navy. It is usual to" dip" on passing a man-of-war or Royal yacht. A Royal yacht never answers the salute by dipping her ensign. Strictly it is etiquette for the blue ensign to dip to the white ; and red to the blue or white.

Burgee

How about the owner's or yacht club burgee flown on the bow? We have always lowered it at sunset along with the ensign on the stern, and hoisted it at 08:00. Would this be correct, or should it remain up 24/7?

I fly a modest American flag on the foremost bow rail (on the pulpit). Flag is roughly 18"x12". Is this in contridiction to a set of standards? I read an earlier post which said that I should be flying it on the stern.

The flag doesn't come down at night, but is rolled cleanly and covered by a boot.

I believe they have been posted / discussed here prior, (in fact, I'm sure they have) but here are some very basic rules and protocol of flag etiquette.

http://www.sailonline.com/seamanship/Flag_etiquette.html

A little more reading:
http://www.usps.org/f_stuff/etiquett.html

And a lot of reading:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode04/usc_sup_01_4_10_1.html

Google or search the forum for flag etiquette and you can get deeper more technical and historical information as well.

Thank you for the additional reading. This weekend will find me removing the US flag from the pulpit and mounting a mast to the stern. The flag will be increased to roughly 40" and on a bracketed mast befitting our national colors.

You learn someting new every day...another reason to get out of bed.

tradition lives

i am the solo crew on a big classic looking sailboat and make the effort to pull the flag down every night at sunset.it is just the right way to do it.always interesting to see how many,if any, of the other boats around put in the effort or even know the way it should be.if i am gonna be away from the boat for awhile i leave the flag down.
takes 1 minute a day and seperates the people who care about tradition from those who dont. i actually had to fire an aussie kid i had working for me on a big old fife schooner in antibes years ago because he would be hiring kids out of the blue lady to pedal back to the boat to drop the huge flag we had on the stern.not the only reason of course but it made a good excuse.