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

Off-centred Crosses on Triangular Flags

See also

Off-centred cross flags

For evident design reasons, most triangular flags with crosses have the vertical arm nearer the hoist (I know of only one example of the contrary: the old Dominican Rear-admiral flag, from [neu39]. Sometimes these kinds of flags are part of a "series" containing rectangular and triangular flags, where the rectangular flags show centered crosses and the triangular flags show off-centered crosses (like in the Portuguese rank flags. Now, my question is: should these be called "Scandinavian crosses"? How to distinguish those that are off centered but "would be" centered if the design were on a rectangular flag from those that are actually designed to be Scandinavian crosses?
António Martins, 12 January 2000

I have been going through that "problem" since the first day I wrote about a burgee with a "cross of St. George" on it. It is difficult enough to define sometimes the "cross of St. George", "cross of St. Andrew", "cross of St. Patrick", "cross of St. John",... in rectangular flags.

In triangular flags, I call "cross of St. Andrew" a X-shape cross intended to be with plenitude in a rectangular flag, and "cross of St.George", a +-shape cross intended to be a "cross of St. George" if the flag had been rectangular, that is, with the vertical arm at half the length of the flag. This second case, about which we are talking, I decided to call it "cross of St. George" after reading the works of the biggest expert on burgees: Peter Edwards, director of the Burgee Data Archives. The vertical arm is centered at one-third the length of the burgee for the cross of St. Andrew on burgees.
Jose C. Alegria, 12 January 2000

Should these be called Scandinavian crosses? How do you distinguish those that are off centered but "would be" centered if the design were on a rectangular flag from those that are actually designed to be Scandinavian crosses?
Jan Zrzavy, 12 January 2000

If the cross on the burgee is intended to be a "Scandinavian cross", (difficult definition because of the different patterns in Scandinavian flags), then the vertical arm of the cross should be closer to the mast (at about 1/5 the length).

Why ?, well, in burgees, or any triangular flag, the proportions of rectangular flags don't apply, because you must weigh up more the part to the fly in order to keep the look proportional. A good example is a burgee divided in three vertical parts. Please take a look at the flag of "Club Nautico Ibiza", Baleares, Spain, before continue reading. Doesn't it look like a 1-1-1 vertically divided flag? and if it had been a rectangular flag, they probably would have designed 1-1-1,... but here it is divided at 1/4 and 3/5 of the length.

In the first case, "cross of St. Andrew", the center of the arms go to half the length of the burgee. See the flag of the "Real Club Nautico de Madrid" which is red with a white cross of St. Andrew.
Jose C. Alegria, 12 January 2000