As some of you know I have a soft spot for the designs, the writings, the voyages, and the art of Albert Strange (1855–1917) and so do enough others to function as The Albert Strange Association, formed in 1978. The largest concentration of AS boats is on the English East Coast, and the flagship of the fleet is the magnificently restored thirty-six-foot Nirvana, in the care of Pete Clay for many years. We Strange skippers try to get together on and off the water a couple of times each year. Some of us will meet tomorrow, with his large extended family and many friends, at the funeral of Pete, whose failing health got the better of him recently. But we’ll repair afterwards to a celebratory gathering, to remember a kind, charming, wise, knowledgeable, and quietly (often wickedly) funny friend who we’ll sorely miss.