If you are sponsoring the MMBA regatta and do not yet have a house flag, this guide should help get you started. Your sponsorship funds help further participation and preservation of classic sailing yachts and are greatly appreciated. In addition to the good will you receive from our membership, you also get a great advertising opportunity with your flag. Since each flag is a custom work, the effort you take in creating a wonderful flag will help you get all the bang you can from your sponsorship dollar. A large and well designed flag that lets your name be known will pay great dividends. Also, a good flag will last many years so I urge you to do it right. This guide should help you get the job done.

Flags are an age old maritime tradition and a key part of our organizations roots when companies sponsored the old San Francisco Bay Schooners at our annual regatta. They'd fly their flags then and we continue the tradition today.

Your flag will be first viewed when your representative presents it to the skipper of the sponsored boat at the annual Sponsors' Luncheon. Each flag is shown in turn to the audience of about 150 or more. A great looking flag will help you get recognition right from the start! Just for clarification, sponsorship funds go toward the organization proper and not the sponsored yacht. However, your flag will fly from a previously selected yacht nonetheless. The presentation of your flag to the skipper is a ceremonial event and a great time to show off your flag.

To get your flag made, you first need to design the flag and determine the dimensions. Once the flag producer sees the design and you make arrangements, it takes about two to three weeks to get the flag produced. NOTE: It often takes longer than expected to get artwork approved so if you don't have camera ready art approved by April 15th, please contact the MMBA Sponsor Chairman.

Sponsor flags come in all sizes from about 18"x24" at the smallest to 36"x60" or larger. Larger sizes are encouraged as they will be easier for people to see and will provide you with more recognition. Of course, the proportions may vary as needed.

We recommend that you use Prestige Flags in San Diego, California. We do a lot of business with Prestige and have arranged advantageous rates, but we are not affiliated with them in any other way. The cost may vary depending on complexity of the design. The flags we typically use are made of a UV protected heavy nylon as the background with whatever color artwork and text cut out of other fabric, then glued and finally stitched on. The setup cost is $50 per design.

For a 36" x 60" flag it costs about $80-$85 or a total of about $135. Note that this may go up with more complexity or amount of text.

A 24" x 36" flag costs the $50 setup plus $55 for the flag or $105 total plus tax and shipping so not much more for a much bigger flag.

If your design has a lot of text or complex artwork and multiple colors, you may have to go with a less expensive silk-screened process. The silk screen process can handle more complexity easier but sometimes these come out looking a little cheap and generally do not last as long as a the more traditional cut and stitched flag.

The easiest way to get a flag made is to email a copy of your camera ready artwork as a .jpg file to Stu Fried at Prestige. His email address is sfried@prestigeflag.com. See below for more contact info:

Stu Fried
Prestige Flag
(800) 876-5155 ext. 217, Fax: 1-