Hi,
Having been a paid crew on a Marblehead yacht in the late 50's, I remember that owner absent/guest aboard flags and owner eating flags were flown from the starboard spreader, so the lights (blue guest aboard and white owner eating) would also be on the starboard spreader. Crew flags were flown on the port foremast spreader and crew eating was a red flag. The same dichotomy applied to boarding - owners and guests boarded from the starboard side, crew from the port. As I was the only crew on our vessel, morning colors involved running the yacht club burgee and owners pennant up stopped with rotten twine, raising the ensign aft at the sound of the yacht club cannon, and then breaking out the masthead flags, yacht club burgee first, with a tug of the halyard. As my boss was the commodore of the Boston Yacht Club, when we were on the yacht club cruise, I did colors a bit before 0800 and discharged the signal cannon at 0800 for the rest of the fleet. We visited Marblehead last spring on the way home from the Bahamas, and morning colors are still observed, although there is no longer the row of magnificent yachts down the center of the harbor with the paid crews from Norway and Deer Isle, Maine who taught me all this. Too bad none of this applies now, it still bothers me when I see a boat running with the ensign at the bow staff or some other abberation.
Good luck,
Roger
