Bermuda To Host Red Ensign Group Conference
The Ministry of Tourism Development and Transport today announced that Bermuda will host this year’s Red Ensign Group [REG] Conference from 23-25 June 2015 at the Grotto Bay Hotel.
A spokesperson said, “The Conference will bring the geographically widespread membership of the REG together for detailed face-to-face discussion on a wide variety of matters of shared interest and provides a forum for detailed discussion on British maritime policy and strategy to ensure that the overall quality of the Red Ensign flag enables it to remain the Flag of Choice for the ship owners.
“The Red Ensign Group is the prestigious group of British Shipping Registers, made up from the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies [Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey] and the UK Overseas Territories [Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena and the Turks & Caicos Islands] which operate shipping registers from their jurisdictions.
“The combined size of the British fleet is currently over 47 million gross tones consisting of modern Cruise Ships, LNG Carriers, Oil Tankers, Bulk Carriers, Container Ships and Super Yachts.
“Any vessel registered in the UK, a Crown Dependency or UK Overseas Territory, is a “British ship” and is entitled to fly the Red Ensign flag.
“Delegates from Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat will join Bermuda for this conference and are looking forward to a packed conference agenda.
“The conference will be co-chaired by Sir Alan Massey, Chief Executive, UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Capt. Pat Nawaratne, Chief Marine Surveyor of the Bermuda Department of Maritime Administration.”
It’s truly a pleasure seeing Bermuda’s on this “list” (no pun meant.) I would like to know, (out of curiosity) who inspects said vessels to make sure they are worthy enough to fly the Red Ensign flag?