^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Inland Waterways Association of Ireland

image by Eugene Ipavec, 25 July 2011

Description of the ensign
Burgee
Helmsman's burgee
Erne flag

Description of the ensign

The IWAI i.e. Inland Waterways Association of Ireland has a webpage, presenting three flags (two photos, one drawing): http://www.iwai.ie/insignia.html, two of which (ensign, burgee) are also illustrated by Graham Bartram, fifth and sixth on this page: http://www.flags.net/IREL14.htm.

“The IWAI Ensign should normally be flown paired with the IWAI Burgee”: light blue field, the national flag in the canton and a wavy set of stripes in the lower fly. See: http://shop.iwai.ie/catalog/index.php?cPath=23. This “set” seemingly consists of a white wavy stripe between two green ones, not touching. On the photo however, the three are connected by similar grey stripes which might have been added to better visually separate them.

As to the blue field, Graham comments: “This ensign is sometimes made with a navy blue field ” but then, I suppose, the manufacturer would be a different one from IWAI’s.
Jan Mertens, 24 July 2011

Burgee

images by Eugene Ipavec, 26 July 2011

The IWAI’s burgee (to be flown with the ensign – first photo of page): http://www.iwai.ie/insignia.html. There is also this helpful page describing the IWAI logo featuring said burgee, see end of page for a drawing and its exact dimensions: http://www.iwai.ie/org/logo/index.html:

“The colours of the logo are inspired by the book Green and Silver. The burgee has a ratio of 5:3 and design elements in the proportion shown below.
The colours are as follows:
Green: RGB: 51,158,53 #339E35; Pantone 362; CMYK 68%,0%,66%,38%
Grey: RGB: 192:192:192 #C0C0C0, Pantone 441, CMYK 0%,0%,0%,20%; Unless one is printing glossy brochures with metallic silver ink, grey as per above is acceptable; Where a Metallic Silver coating is desired, Pantone 877c can be used".

The burgee is a green pennant, broad horizontal wave white-silver-white-silver-white.
Compare, however, Graham’s drawing (http://www.flags.net/IREL14.htm) – also, in this case the burgee has blue instead of silver (or grey).
Jan Mertens, 25 July 2011

Helmsman's burgee

image by Eugene Ipavec, 27 July 2011

A pennant named “IWAI helmsman burgee” is found on this page: http://www.iwai.ie/insignia.html.
Blue or azure pennant, extending into it a red triangle with rounded apex situated in the fly and thinly bordered white; on the red field, upper right, a yellow steering wheel (eight spokes) and lower left, five horizontal waves shown separately white-green-white-green-white.

This drawing does not quite do justice to the red colour, compare this photo here: http://www.iwai.ie/gallery/2009/20090301_Skipper_Course_T_Klug.jpg, and clickable picture on this page: http://shop.iwai.ie/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=37.
“This striking burgee signifies that [the person flying it has] passed the IWAI/ISA Certificate of Competency for Motor Cruising.”
Jan Mertens, 26 July 2011

Erne flag

image by Eugene Ipavec, 28 July 2011

A further flag proposed by IWAI, in a light-hearted way, is the Erne flag: http://shop.iwai.ie/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=101.
“There has been debate over the years as to the correct way to fly the Erne Flag. Some argue "Green to the ground and blue to the sky". However the accepted way is for the green stripe to be on top representing the land and the blue on the bottom representing the water. As the source of the Erne is in the Republic of Ireland with the main loughs in Northern Ireland, a more cynical interpretation is that the flag was designed to not offend anybody in that it is neither green/white/orange or red/white/blue!!! This flag is constructed of woven polyester and is approximately 24" x 36". Its designed to be flown green uppermost but you can fly it the other way if you wish.” See 1/3 of the following page showing the flag in action – green uppermost: http://www.iwai.ie/forum/read.php?1,21945,22036.

More on this Wikipedia page “Cross-border flag for Ireland”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-border_flag_for_Ireland
“This flag was initially used on the Shannon–Erne Waterway, which is bisected by the border. Rather than flying a national flag, boats fly this green, white and blue flag. It is endorsed by The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, an all-Ireland organisation.”

Very appropriately, the yearly Erne Boat Rally specifies: “No flags are to be flown during the Rally, with the exception of the Erne Flag and Burgees.”
Homepage – blue uppermost: http://www.erneboatrally.com/rallyinstructions.html.
Jan Mertens, 27 July 2011