A Reader writes: “I’m so mad I want to quit our club! Our Commodore insists on flying our country’s flag lower than the club burgee. It looks bad and it’s wrong, but he says the gaff is the “place of honor.” He says he learned it at “the Academy.” What is the place of honor? And what “Academy” is he talking about?” The flag display at all maritime locations—naval installations, Coast Guard bases, ports, yacht clubs, and even the United States Naval Academy—all have one thing in common: a gaff extending upwards off the “back” of the flagpole at about a 45% angle. The top of the gaff is the “place of honor.” Here’s why: The maritime flag display represents a sailing ship “standing out to sea.” In other words, when you see that display with the yardarm and the gaff, you’re looking at a sailing ship about to leave
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Ida Lewis Yacht Club
Many clubs have unique stories that explain how they got their names, but none of them is more unique than the story of Ida Lewis Yacht Club. In 1853, Congress authorized the construction of a lighthouse on Lime Rock in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. Ida’s father, Hosea Lewis, was appointed keeper, but he suffered a stroke four months into his assignment. To support the family, Hosea’s wife and daughter Ida took over the job. Later, after her mother died, Ida Lewis was officially appointed keeper in her own right, and she held that job from 1879 to 1911. Ida was a strong swimmer and knew how to handle a rowboat. She became a legend during her 39 years on Lime Rock by rowing out into the face of Newport’s fiercest storms to save victims of shipwrecks and capsizings. In 1924 the Rhode Island legislature officially changed the name of Lime
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