Please don't fly the dive flag when there aren't divers in the water.

The dive flags (Alpha flag, and the red with a white stripe) indicate the presence of
divers in the water. Please don't fly it unless you actually have divers in the
water.

Both commercial and recreational dive boats have developed the habit of not
taking the flag down. This conveys inaccurate information to other boaters,
and will tend to cause them to ignore the dive flag.

For more info, see http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/ba_diving/diveflag.html

Thanks Chuck! I needed to refresh my RoR and this helped!

Just to stir the pot...

What about using this one? (Oscar flag, aka Man Overboard)


With maybe this one too? (Numeral 3 (Signifying three divers))


As discussed previously, I never leave my dive flag up when under power. Worse though is sometimes I forget to put it up.

Maybe we should just point and laugh at those with their dive flag up while under power, much like we do when someone has their fenders out away from the dock.

Peter_C:

Just to stir the pot...
Maybe we should just point and laugh at those with their dive flag up while under power, much like we do when someone has their fenders out away from the dock.

Click to expand...

We always referred to this practice as "training wheels" for new boaters. :lol:

Hey Chuck, just what did come out of that conversation with the yacht club? Sounds to me like they are making excuses up in some ways. I understand some divers aren't following the rules, which they should in regards to dive flags, but that doesn't mean other boaters should ignore our dive flags, since it is a big safety issue. I don't want to get hit by a silent sailboat.

As a courtesy on inland water ways, if a downed skier is in the water, the driver of a passing boat raised their hand to acknowledge the person in the water. I doubt most ocean going vessels would do anything other than stare at us, with no acknowledgment, if we were swimming towards our boats.