Redwood Sail and Power Squadron a unit of United States Power Squadrons® Boating is fun..We'll show you how

History

1984 On 25 February, Redwood Power Squadron was chartered in Santa Rosa with forty members from Marin. Theodore McCarthy, N, became Redwood Squadron's first commander.

Pictured here is P/D/C Ted McCarthy N, displaying the burgee he designed for Redwood in 1984. In addition, he personally sewed over 195, to be given to new members. His story on how it came about is as follows: "Designs are simple and bold so as to be distinguishable at a distance and must be such that the pattern reads correctly on both sides." With this as criteria, Ted set about to design a new burgee when members left Marin to form Redwood. The first design considered was to indicate parentage of Marin by using their basic design with a Redwood Tree, but it was not distinguishable at a distance.

In the 1971 edition of "Chapman", there was a drawing showing a lighthouse radiating multiple light beams. This concept was adopted for a blue burgee with bands of white radiating from a central focus. Superimposed on the focus was placed a white plaque bearing a symbolic Redwood Tree. This design was approved by Squadron Members in April of 1984 and has be flown from many vessels since that time.

Fred Mehrtens

Ted & the Redwood Burgee

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