No room on the stern for a staff. Too much stuff back there. Keeping it on
the backstay keeps it out of the way. When the wind isn;t blowing, it hangs
forward and looks just fine.
"Capt. NealŪ" wrote in message
...
"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in message
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The angle of the mainsail luff isn't much different than the angle of the
backstay.
I don;t see how if makes much difference. I've been flying my ensign off
the backstay
for years with no problems.
I'm assuming you meant leech and not luff or it doesn't make much sense.
But, please stop and consider that when sailing the leech of the mainsail
has
wind blowing over it in such a way as to keep the flag flying.
Now consider an anchored vessel in little or no wind. A flag that hangs
off
the backstay will tend to wrap around it and not display properly while
a flag on a stern staff will hand down and partially open even if there
is no wind and it light winds it displays nicely.
You really should stop flying your flag off the backstay and put it on
a stern staff. I also used to fly my flag off the backstay until recently
after doing quite a bit of reading on the subject and I concluded I
was better served with a stern staff. I can even fly my flag at night
because the anchor light is right above it and illuminates the flag as
required for flags flown at night.
CN