Albert Strange

{{Short description|Artist and yacht designer}} {{for|the Australian rules footballer|Albert Strange (footballer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Albert Strange | image = Albert Strange on Cherub III.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Albert Strange on his boat ''Cherub III'', c. 1916 | birth_date = {{Birth date |1855|6|29|df=yes}} | birth_place = Gravesend | death_date = {{Death date and age|1917|7|11|1855|6|29|df=yes}} | death_place = Scarborough, North Yorkshire | resting_place = Hutton Buscel<ref name=BIO/> | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = | known_for = Yacht design | notable_works = | style = | website =  }} '''Albert Strange''' (1855–1917) was an English artist and yacht designer. He was the headmaster of the Scarborough School of Art.<ref>{{cite book |title=Albert Strange: Yacht Designer and Artist 1855–1917 |isbn=0-946270-73-2 |last=John |first=Leather |year=1990}}</ref> With George Holmes, he was a mainstay of the Humber Yawl Club which developed the use of sailing canoes with a yawl rig.<ref name=Lowerson/>

==Life and career== Albert Strange was born on 29 June 1855,<ref name=BIO>{{cite web |title=Biography |url=https://albertstrange.org/biography/ |website=Albert Strange - his life, boats, art |publisher=Albert Strange Association |access-date=11 February 2024}}</ref> growing up in Gravesend where he learned to sail with a fisherman who helped him convert a peter boat for cruising around the Thames Estuary. He studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Leicester College of Arts and Crafts, completing his education in 1878. He then taught art in Liverpool for three years, where he married.<ref name="AB">{{cite journal |last1=Danielson |first1=Thad |title=The Small Yachts of Albert Strange |journal=The Ash Breeze |date=2010 |volume=31 |issue=2 |publisher=Traditional Small Craft Association |location=West Mystic, CT}}</ref>

Circa 1882, Strange took a job as the headmaster of the new Scarborough School of Art — a position which he held for 35 years until his death on 11 July 1917.<ref name=AB/><ref name=BIO/> He exhibited at the Royal Academy, from 1882 to 1897.<ref>{{cite book |first=H. L. |last=Mallalieu |title=The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920 |year=1986 |publisher=Antique Collectors' Club |isbn=1-85149-025-6 |page=325}}</ref>

==Scarborough and the Humber Yawl Club== For some years, Strange was captain of the Humber Yawl Club, (formed in 1883), shortly after his arrival in Scarborough about 50 miles to the north.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.humberyawlclub.com/history.php |title=History Of The Club |website=Humber Yawl Club |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref> He produced many designs for boats suited to the club's locale, both for himself and other members.<ref name=Lowerson/> They were light craft which would cope well with being beached on the mud flats of the Humber Estuary or being shipped abroad as deck cargo, but they had cabins which enabled them to be used for long voyages of a month or so.<ref name=Lowerson>{{cite book |last1=Lowerson |first1=John |title=Sport and the English Middle Classes 1870 - 1914 |date=1995 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester |isbn=978-0-7190-4651-3 |page=53 |edition=Paperback}}</ref> One of his designs was the 15m cutter rig yacht ''Tally Ho''.

==Designs== Strange was one of the first designers to promote light displacement craft, specifically designed for cruising, rather than using designs based on working craft. He was a prolific and sought after designer and designed about 150 boats in all. <gallery mode="packed"> File:Otter canoe-yacht plans.png|Plans for the ''Otter'', designed in 1898 for a member of the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club to sail on the lower Saint Lawrence.<ref name=HCF>{{cite book |pages=79–81 |first=Henry Coleman |last=Folkard |title=Sailing boats from around the world |year=1906}}</ref> File:Otter canoe-yacht sails.png|Sailing rig for the ''Otter'' </gallery>

Albert Strange designed boats which have survived include ''Constance'' (design 45, rebuilt in 2006), ''Sheila'' (design 70, oldest surviving boat in commission), ''Sheila II'' (design 117), and ''Tally Ho'' (design 96, rebuilt 2024)<ref>{{cite web |title=Boats |url=https://albertstrange.org/boats-incommission |website=Albert Strange - his life, boats, art |publisher=Albert Strange Association |access-date=11 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sheila II: the boat and the book |url=https://www.rebeccahayter.co.nz/post/sheila-ii-the-boat-and-the-book |website=Rebecca Hayter: author, journalist |date=21 January 2021 |access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref>

== Albert Strange Association == There is an active Association which has as its mission "to trace, record and, so far as it is within our power, preserve the designs, boats, art works and writings of Albert Strange, and to make a permanent record of his life and work."<ref>{{cite web |title=Constitution |url=https://albertstrange.org/constitution/ |website=Albert Strange - his life, boats, art |publisher=Albert Strange Association |access-date=11 February 2024}}</ref> The Association holds Summer Meets (usually on the UK's East coast) where yachts built to Albert Strange designs meet, and share with others the opportunity to sail these craft. The Association's website contains much further information on his life and the breadth and diversity of his abilities; his success as an artist, yacht designer, raconteur and teacher of pupils across a wide range of ages.<ref>{{cite web |title=Home |url=https://albertstrange.org/ |website=Albert Strange - his life, boats, art |publisher=Albert Strange Association |access-date=11 February 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite book |last1=Clay |first1=Jamie |last2=Miller |first2=Mark |title=Albert Strange on Yacht Design, Construction and Cruising |date=1999 |publisher=The Albert Strange Association |location=Aldeburgh, Suffolk |isbn=0-9526160-0-9}}

==External links== * [http://www.albertstrange.org/ The Albert Strange Association]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strange, Albert}} Category:1855 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Place of birth missing Category:British yacht designers Category:People from Gravesend Category:People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Category:British marine artists