Royal Victoria Yacht Club (United Kingdom)

Last modified: 2012-01-20 by rob raeside
Keywords: royal victoria yacht club |
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• Ensign

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• British yacht clubs and sailing clubs index
• United Kingdom

Ensign

Similar to that used for the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Ireland.
Clay Moss, 23 February 2006

Since 1898, the Special Ensign of the Royal Victoria has been a Royal Crown surmounting the initials VR. Prior to that (i.e., between the establishment of the club in the mid-1840s and 1898, the club used a Red Ensign defaced in the centre of the Union with a Royal Crown.
James Liston, 17 May 2011

The RVYC Club Rules:

2. BURGEE AND ENSIGN
2.1. The Club burgee shall be red with a crown over a foul anchor and on either side the letters VR pierced yellow.
2.2. The Club ensign shall be the red ensign, defaced with a crown on the lower part of the fly with the letters VR underneath pierced yellow, for which a warrant was granted by the Admiralty in 1845.

[Actually, the club is slightly in error here; the royal cipher defacement did not originate until late in the life Queen Victoria; she gave personal permission for the cipher to be used in this manner.]

2.3. The Club burgee may be flown by any member, but may not be flown on a member's yacht if no member is part of the crew.
2.4. The Club ensign may be worn by any member on board a yacht for which that member holds a Ministry of Defence warrant/permit and subject to the conditions of that warrant/permit. The warrant/permit must be returned to the Club Secretary immediately after the yacht to which it refers ceases to be the member's property. Warrant/permit holders must furnish the Secretary with details of craft owned and also of the sale or disposal of that craft.

Adm. Warrant = 3 Mar 1898: The RVYC was founded as a Royal club and given a warrant for The Red Ensign of HM Fleet in 1845 (on June 4 or possibly June 29). The RVYC was known locally as the Red Squadron, as opposed to the White Squadron which the RYS at Cowes was colloquially termed. A warrant for defaced Red Ensign (crown on Union) subsequently granted 8 Oct 1872. Request then made to Admiralty on 16 Aug 1897 to move defacement to fly (because of confusion with undefaced Red Ensign of Merchant Service following dis-establishment of squadronal system in 1864), and to include the letters VR. Admiralty allowed crown but not letters on 24 Aug 1897. Osborne House approached about the letters on 7 Jan 1898. On 27 Jan 1898 Queen Victoria gave her consent for inclusion of VR beneath the crown in the fly and the Admiralty (not surprisingly!) issued the new warrant on 3 Mar 1898.