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Principality of Monaco: Sports flags

Monégasque Olympic Committee (Comité Olympique Monégasque)
Automobile Club de Monaco
Watersports clubs
- Société Nautique de Monaco
- Yacht Club de Monaco

See also:

Principality of Monaco

Monégasque Olympic Committee

Flag of COM, horizontal and vertical versions - Images by TomislavŠipek, 8 February 2018

The flag of COM (photo) is white with the Committee's emblem.

TomislavŠipek, 8 February 2018

Automobile Club de Monaco

Flag of ACM - Image by TomislavŠipek, 9 July 2019

Automoblie Club de Monaco (ACM; website) was established on 26 August 1890 by 21 founding members, as Sport Vélocipédique de la Principauté (SVP), to be renamed to Sport Vélocipédique Monégasque (SVM) one week later. In the aftermath of the success of motorcars, President Henri Tairraz obtained on 28 August 1907 the renaming of the club to Sport Automobile et Vélocipédique de Monaco (SAVM).

Elected President of SAVM on 21 October 1909, Alexandre Noghès proposed to establish a car race; two years later, his son, Antony Noghès (1890-1978) organized the first Rallye Automobile de Monaco, ran from 21 to 19 January 1911. The 23 competitors rallied Monaco from six towns (Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Vienna, Geneva); Henri Rougier won the race on a Turcat-Mercy 25HP, at an average speed of 13.8 km/h.
Alexandre Noghès edited a yearbook with the member's names and address and road itineraries, as well. He revived SAVM in 1921, organizing the first Semaine Automobile from 8 to 15 March 1921, in continuity with the project initiated in June 1914 and suppressed by the First World War.

On 29 March 1925, 55 members of the club gathered in a Extraordinary General Assembly approved (49 for, 5 against and 1 abstained from voting) the renaming of the club. Noghès argued out that "the increased significance of the society requires to change its name to Automobile Club de Monaco", pointing out that "bicycling sport tends to become rare while motorsport increases". As the Commissioner General of the club, Noguès applied in Paris for the affiliation of ACM to Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), the forerunner of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The application was rejected since ACM did not organize competitions on its national territory. As a solution, Noguès commissioned the pilot Louis Chiron (1899-1979) and the engineer Jacques Taffe; the wealthy Société des Bains de Mer funded the design of the circuit. On 18 October 1928, ACM was admitted as the 34th member of AIACR.

The first Grand Prix de Monaco was ran on 14 April 1929. The circuit was inaugurated by Prince Pierre, on a Torpedo Voisin driven by Charles Faroux, the race director, in the absence of Chiron, who had enrolled in the Indianapolis 500 Miles (Chiron won the Grand Prix de Monaco in 1931). The English pilot Williams Grover-Williams (1903-1945) won the race on a green Bugatti 35 B, completing 100 rounds in 3 h 56' 11" (average speed, 80 km/h).
The success of the Grand Prix boosted membership, which increased to 712 in 1929, 841 in 1930, and 910 in 1931, "41 ladies" included. On 21 May 1950, for the first season of the Formula 1 World Championship, the 11th Grand Prix de Monaco was won by a young Argentine pilot, Juan Manuel Fangio.

The flag of ACM (photo, photo) is white with the club's emblem.
The emblem of ACM features on a Grimaldi background (red and white lozenges) a white steering wheel charged in the center with a blue disc inscribed "ACM" in white letters. Above the disc is a discrete, if not inconspicuous tribute to the origins of the club (photo), most probably the original emblem of SVM, a shield surmounted by a blue scroll inscribed "S.V.M" in white letters and charged in chief with the mother of sports bicycle, a penny-farthing / high wheeler.

TomislavŠipek & Ivan Sache, 9 July 2019

Watersports club

Société Nautique de Monaco

Flag and burgee of SNM - Images by Ivan Sache, 17 February 2010

The Société des Régates de Monaco (website) was founded in 1888 by Louis Adjani, Honoré Bellando, Adolphe Blanchy, Henri and Jean Crovetto, Albert De Millo, Ambroise Delpiano, Victor Lefranc, Jean and Joseph Marquet, Louis Neri and Jean Vatrican. The first rowing and sailing regatta ever organized in the Monaco Bay took place on 17 March 1889.
On 19 May 1953, the club split into the Société Nautique de Monaco (SNM), dedicated to rowing, and the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM), dedicated to yachting.

With some 200 members of many different nationalities, the SNM, affiliated with the French Rowing Federation (FFSA), is also in charge of the Monegasque Rowing Federation, founded in 1993. Accordingly, the SNM members of French or Monegasque nationality can compete in the French championships, while those of Monegasque nationality can also compete in international events under the Monegasque flag. In the Beijing Olympic Games (2008), the skiffer Mathias Raymond, standard-bearer during the opening ceremony, finished 22nd - incidentally, he rank 8th in the Sexiest Competitor's Contest.
The rowers of the SNM train on sea, between Port Hercule - Monaco's main port - and the Bay of Roquebrune - located east of Monaco, in French territorial waters. They also row on Lake Saint-Cassien (Provence), at the training base of Montauroux. SNM has closed links with the local French and Italian rowing clubs; a main event in the rowing season is the sea rowing race San Remo-Monaco.

The flag of SNM (photo) is red with two groups of two white horizontal stripes each at the top and the bottom and a white star in the middle. A white triangle is placed along the hoist, charged with the club's emblem.
The emblem featured on the flag is made of two oars with white and red blades crossed in saltire quartered by the black letters "S" (left), "N" (top), and "M" (right). The emblem is surmounted by a crown and surmounts year "1888" in gold. On the stand-alone emblem, the letters are omitted and the blades are superimposed with the club's burgee.

The burgee of the SNM, hoisted over the club house located on the northern side of Port Hercule, is made of nine horizontal stripes, in turn white and red, the stripes # 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 being twice higher than the other ones. A white star is placed in the middle of the central, red stripe.

Ivan Sache, 17 February 2018

Yacht club de Monaco

Burgee of YCM, two versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 10 May 2010

On 19 May 1953, the Société des Régates de Monaco, founded in 1988, split into the Société Nautique de Monaco (SNM), dedicated to rowing, and the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM), dedicated to yachting.

The home of big sailing and motor boats, the YCM organizes famous races such as the Primo Cup, the Monaco-New York transatlantic race and the Grand Prix de Formule 40'. Fond of historic yachts, Prince Albert II created in 1994 the Monaco Classic Week and purchased the next year the Tuiga, a cotter built in 1909 in Scotland for Duke of Medinaceli and considered by Éric Tabarly as "one of the ten most beautiful yachts in the world", today the flagship of YCM.

The burgee of YCM is vertically divided, at hoist white with a simplified version of the Monegasque coat of arms surrounded by the letters "Y" (top left), "C" (top right) and "M" (bottom), either black (photo) or red, and at fly red with two white triangular stripes; the two main fields are separated by a red fimbriation.

Ivan Sache, 10 May 2010