Response to Jonathan Cork re Albert Strange Cloud

Hi Jonathan – Apologies for not answering your request in CB May 2021 about the Albert Strange Cloud. I was brought up sailing the Albert Strange Firefly which my grandfather bought in 1934. She has been in the family since then and is now owned by my younger brother Jamie Clay (boatbuilder). And engineless for the past 20 years! I used to dream of Cloud, especially after going to the Mystic Seaport museum and getting the ketch and yawl plans of her. It is interesting, and testament to Strange’s artistry, that he drew a slightly di—erent sheer and stern for the yawl – I think she is prettier. We don’t know what happened to her but a yawl version of her named Blue Jay did exist in Florida some years ago. James Studd built a new Cloud at the International Boatbuilding School in Lowestoft some years ago, and I last heard of her at Alan Staley’s yard in Kent. If you’d like to follow up on any of this I’d recommend the Albert Strange Association. There is a later and better book giving more information which might be available. Pete Clay