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Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Australia)

Peppermint Grove, Western Australia

image by Clay Moss, 3 Oct 2007

Description
Ensign
Burgee
Controversy about the burgee

See also:

Description

Established in Perth 1896.
First entry in Navy List [naL] 1936.
David Prothero, 1 March 2006

Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Australia)
A brief history of the club can be found at: http://www.rfbyc.asn.au/content/club-info/history.php
Peter Edwards, 18 November 2017

Extract from Club rules:

25. Club crest, flags and burgees
(a) The Club Crest is a red and yellow St Edward's Crown above a naval ceremonial belt with a buckle and the title 'Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club Inc.' superimposed on the belt. Inside the space formed by the belt is the Club Burgee above a silver fouled anchor.
(b) The Club Flag, and the Club Burgee which is a pennant, are blue with a white cross with a red and yellow St Edward's Crown superimposed on the intersection.
(c) The Commodore's Flag is a swallow-tail, blue with a white cross with a red and yellow St Edward's Crown superimposed at the intersection.
(d) The Vice Commodore's Flag is similar to the Commodore's but with one white ball in the upper hoist.
(e) The Rear Commodore's Flag is similar to the Commodore's but with two white balls, one in the upper hoist and one in the lower hoist.
(f) The Past Commodore's Flag is similar to the Commodore's but with a white cross in the upper hoist.

Remy Donraadt, 11 March 2025

Ensign

The device on the cross of the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club's ensign is a ducal coronet, but not the coronet of the Duchy of Cornwall as found on the Royal Fowey Yacht Club. As far as I can tell via the various correspondence that I have seen, the RFBYC's ensign is currently only on paper and currently, no yacht flies it.
Clay Moss, 11 July 2007

Burgee

Burgee as used by the club
image by Clay Moss, 29 May 2007

As best as I can tell, the Royal Thames Yacht Club, UK and the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, Australia share the same burgee.
Clay Moss, 29 May 2007

The Dumpy Pocket Book of Sailing Dinghies and Yachts, of 1960, doesn't have the Royal Thames. It does show the burgee of the Royal Freshwater Bay, matching what you've drawn closely - in black and white drawing using colour indications. It uses a Tudor crown for the Burgee, though. Does this mean that all burgees with crowns that existing before a certain time have an earlier version using a Tudor crown?

The book also has the Royal Brighton Y.C. (Middle Brighton, Australia) with almost the same Burgee. The only difference it that the arms of the cross might be marginally wider, allowing the, Tudor, crown to come free from the upper two corners of the intersection.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 May 2007

Controversy about the burgee

The material below was initially contributed from an unsolicited source. FOTW has no way to verify the claims, but we present facts as best we can ascertain.
[editor]

For many years I have communicated with Captain Malcolm Farrow RN in relation to Warrants for yachts. For many years there has been a gently simmering dispute with Royal Brighton Yacht Club (RBYC) in Melbourne because Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (RFBYC) has been using incorrectly RBYC's burgee and consequently the wrong ensign. According to their own rules, the ensign is a gold ducal coronet centred on a white 'Greek cross' centred in the fly of the ensign. RFBYC have as yet to acknowledge their error in using the St Edwards crown on both the burgee and ensign. RFBYC have also lost their warrant and royal charter in a boating mishap when transferring their records from their prior site to the one they now occupy. Apparently the boat capsized, tossing a variety of items into the Swan River including the charter and warrant to the bottom of the river and never recovered. The original records in London were either destroyed in World War 2 or filed somewhere very safe, never to be found again! It is possible, although I am yet to check, that the Governor of Western Australia has correspondence from 1936 that might have the wording of the charter and warrant.
Neil Freeman, 4 July 2007

image by Clay Moss, 11 July 2007

RFBYC in its own rules states that the burgee is a plain gold ducal coronet on a white St George's Cross on a blue background. RFBYC have as yet to acknowledge their error in using the St Edwards crown on both the burgee and ensign.
Neil Freeman, 4 July 2007

Rule XIV(b) in my 1995 version of their rules states “...the club burgee which is a pennant is blue with a white cross with a ducal coronet superimposed on the intersection”.
Neil Freeman, 13 February 2009

The RFBYC moved between 22 February 1999 and 4 March 2000 from Perth, Western Australia, to Peppermint Grove, Western Australia. The club's address changed between these dates, which are archived by the Internet Archive (archive.org, search results for the homepage). Before and after the move the club's burgee is depicted with the Edwardian crown. On the website from 4 March 2000 the disastrous incident reported by Neil Freeman is mentioned nowhere – or I couldn't find it.
Martin Karner, 12 March 2025