Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
Keywords: royal hong kong yacht club | dragon | crown | blue ensign |
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Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
image by Clay Moss, 17 April 2009
Source: photos of the club ensign
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club variant
image by Clay Moss, 17 April 2009
Source: flag as manufactured
Burgee
image by Clay Moss, 18 April 2009
See also:
External links:
The image of the variant looks nothing like any illustration that I have ever
seen. However, I traced this image directly off a Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club ensign that came
directly from the club. I have seen photos of the badge displayed mid fly
and lower fly quarter.
Clay Moss, 17 April 2009
About the emblem shown on the RHKYC: Was it used in the ensign/burgee
previously - the design shown must be of a later more modern design.
Beside the dragon, that older badge includes a ribbon with RHKYC name
inscribed and five hills.
Željko Heimer, 18 April 2009
I think the emblem at the website is/was used only for other purposes. I think that it once graced the entrance of the club and it has certainly been used on letterheads, websites etc.
With that said, I'm under the impression that the image that I have submitted was the ensign/burgee badge for some time. However, I do not know that for certain.
This arrangement though would not be unique among British yacht clubs. I have seen maybe 3 or 4 other instances where a club's ensign badge and its badge used for other purposes were a bit different.
I'm still researching the 2 flags in the old picture. I think the one on the
viewers right is simply an undefaced British.
Clay Moss, 18 April 2009
Estb: 1889 as the Hong Kong Corinthian Sailing Club. "At the General Meeting
of the [club] held in October 1893 a resolution was passed that application
should be made to the Admiralty for permission to call the club 'The Royal Hong
Kong Yacht Club' and fly the blue ensign with a distinctive mark on the flag. A
warrant was granted by the Lords of the Admiralty on 15th. May 1894."
Sources: Quote:
http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/History.aspx
Image: Lloyd's Register of Yachts
1885.
image contributed by David Prothero, 18 April 2009Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Commodore
Swallow Tail 7:10 and 7:9 to crotch
(photo image). Blue field superimposed by the Club’s burgee image (white dragon)
in centre.
Past Commodore
Swallow Tail circa 3:12 and 3:10 to crotch
(photo image). Blue field superimposed by three 1 unit diameter red disks (2 and
1) next to hoist and the Club’s burgee image (white dragon) centred 5 units from
hoist.
Source: "Changing Guard.” Ahoy! July/August 2018: 15.
Peter
Edwards, 16 July 2018
Chinese trade for westerners was limited to Canton. A side-effect of this was
the appearance of recreational boating in Canton waters. This took on such forms
that the new regulations of 1832 sought to mostly stop it. Still, in 1837 the
Canton Regatta Club was founded. The club disappeared in the First Opium War,
but after the war, in 1844, former members recreated it, apparently as the
Canton Rowing Club.
As merchants from Canton migrated to the treaty
ports, in 1849 in Victoria Town, Hong Kong, former members of the Canton Regatta
Club founded the Victoria Regatta Club. Though known for rowing, the club
sporadically organised also other water-based sports.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
2 May 2019
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 May 2019
As the Victoria Recreation Club, the VRC exists to this day:
http://victoriarecreationclub.com.hk. The site shows a logo with a white
flag with a red cross bearing the letters VRC in white. It also includes a
photograph of the 1930 water polo team with the club flag behind them: Almost
square, white, a dark cross and "V.R.C" in white.
http://victoriarecreationclub.com.hk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1930_VRC_Waterpoloteam_01.jpg
(from
http://victoriarecreationclub.com.hk/about-us/history). The flag may have
been shortened by the way it's hoisted, though.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
2 May 2019
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 May 2019
A more recent
photograph, from 2017, is shown by the Paddle Section: 2:3 as white, a
red cross of St. George and "V.R.C." in white on the red stripe.
http://victoriarecreationclub.com.hk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/VRCPS2017_Title.jpg
from
(http://victoriarecreationclub.com.hk/sport-sections/vrcpaddlesection).
The history of sports clubs during the rest of the
19th century involves stories about some eight different clubs with similar
names. I reduced the number here to two more clubs, under the assumption that
the others are just names for different versions of the same clubs.
In
1869, a yacht club branches off from the VRC under the name of Hong Kong Boat
Club. The design of the flag of this new club was the reverse of that of its
parent, VRC. Obviously, either the VRC didn't bear lettering on its flag at
the time or the design wasn't its exact reverse.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
2 May 2019
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 May 2019
In 1889, racing occurred
in a Mersey Canoes, organised among the racers themselves as Corinthian
Sailing Club. In reaction to this, the Boat Club reorganised as an independent
club, the Hong Kong Yacht Club, and applied for a warrant to use a defaced blue
ensign and permission to call itself the "Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club".
Permission was granted on 15 May 1894. Apparently the back and forth made it too
late for the club to appear with its new honour and flags in the yacht register
of Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1895. The flag there is most likely the flag
with reversed colours that it adopted in 1869.
By 1897, the RHKYC is indeed listed with a defaced blue ensign. Here, I
include the listing of 1902, showing both the ensign and the burgee.
In
1904, the Corinthians formally organised as the Hong Kong Corinthian Yacht
Club (https://gwulo.com/Hong-Kong-Corinthian-Yacht-Club) In 1920, it
merged into the RHKYC. No information on a burgee, so far.
The RHKYC
kept using the Blue Ensign and burgee, though it may well have restyled the
complex defacement from time to time. In 1976 it absorbed the Shelter Cove
Yacht Club. No information on a burgee, so far. The club changed to a new burgee
when Hong Kong reverted to China.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
2 May 2019
