GAM on Yachting: Bookshelf


	North America’s Oldest Sailing Magazine

Visual Guide to Flags of the World by Vicki de Kleer, Four colour illustrated guide, glossary 8 1/2 x 11, soft cover, $12.95 (Can.). Published by Nimbus Publishing Ltd. , 3731 Mackintosh St., Halifax B3K 5M8, 902-455-4286.

It’s touted as a practical reference tool for people involved with ships, the military, customs officials, diplomats, students, tourists on cruises or travelling overseas, and those in multi-cultural class settings. However, without declaiming a bit of all that, a review of this book leaves one thinking it would be a first choice for children who sail and cruise and/or watch international sporting events, either on site or on television.

Flag watching! This book can open the door to a hobby or recreation with all the attributes of bird watching and stamp collecting combined. Brightly coloured illustrations are superbly organized so that any of the more than 400 flags can be turned to almost instantly . On seeing a flag of interest, one simply takes note of its shape, colour and design, follows the guidelines and the flag appears with, perhaps, a half dozen others it closely resembles. The need for tedious searches through encyclopedia and other texts for identification of flags is eliminated.

Included in the book are national flags from Abkhazia to Zaimbabwe along with the flags of territories, states, special flags such as those of the United Nations and Red Cross. Also included are those that form the International Alphabet and the pennants that have made up the International Code of Signals since 1932.

A glossary contains some 40 items about flags. On flag etiquette, we may be aware that a flag should always be treated with respect and never allowed to touch the ground or trailed in the water behind a vessel. But also, it’s a point of honour that a flag be maintained in good condition and always kept bright. National flags should never be made into clothing, towels or such items and the worst insult of all is to stamp on burn somebody else’s flag.

Flags have been around for at least 5,000 years. some early versions were carved from wood into insignia such as lions or eagles. For centuries the ability to quickly recognize them and what they stand for has been essential for mariners and for armies in battle needing to distinguish friend from foe.

Today’s world travellers continue to glean useful information from flags. For instance, when a cruise ship is about to depart the Code flag "P" is flown to advise passengers to hurry back on board. At international sporting events, TV viewers and those on event sites continue to identify national teams by their flags and insignia.

Vicki’s book is dedicated to the officers and crew of Britain’s sail training ship, the Lord Nelson, that allows men and women with disabilities to crew. She got the idea for her book when she sailed to Amsterdam from Halifax on the vessel with a fleet of 25 tall ships in the year 2000.

As a small child Vicki sailed, in her father‘s Dragon Class sailboat, near big liners and warships off the Isle of Wight. As a child evacuee, she crossed the Atlantic in a ship that was "packed to the scuppers with children" and zig zagged on its own, having missed the convoy and, consequently perhaps, the terrible U-boat convoy attacks of 1940. In the war years she sailed with a U.S. family in Rhode Island, then again with her own family until she came to Canada in 1950. She continues to sail in 60-foot trans-Atlantic racing yachts and square riggers and in her Alberg 22, Sparrowhawk, the most recent of the four yachts she has owned, out of Bronte Harbour Yacht Club on Lake Ontario.

The sailing program that she started for the visually impaired continues to thrive in its 28th year.

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