Members will be saddened to hear of Peter's death. A few years after joining the DCA in 1980, he took over the position of Technical Advisor, a job he held down until the end. Then, in 1991, Peter became our President and in 1992, took over as publisher. You'll quickly see from this that for a long period, he actually held three very demanding posts concurrently and even after relinquishing the Presidency to Roger Barnes in 1997, continued with the other two. For us, his life seemed to be the DCA.

There was another side to Peter with wide ranging interests including tennis, which he played well into later life. There was his house, built from a imported Swedish kit; the old car patiently renovated and a business run - in what we might term his 'spare time'. His general knowledge was prodigious and, on sailing and allied matters, almost encyclopaedic, enabling him to talk authoritatively about birds, river wildlife and the night sky. He shared his knowledge through the Bulletin on sails, binoculars, installation of moorings, boat building and handling. All his articles were extremely well written and would have done credit to any commercial magazine. You could say he knew it all, without being in any sense a 'know-all', probably because of another quality - that of being a very good listener, always willing to learn more. Eventually the RNLI recruited him as one of their Sea Check inspectors.

To most members he will be remembered as our Publisher. His keen interest in computers and his ability to come to grips with their complexities enabled him to bring the Bulletin up to date. He raised it from the Roneoed sheets, stapled together, to the present day format.

Peter and his wife ran a successful ski and sailing wear business, but upon retirement, he devoted more time to boat building, frequently arriving at rallies with a new one, always painstakingly, lovingly and beautifully built. You could be sure they incorporated some Bicky innovation that the designer hadn't thought of. Who can forget Maisie Lou his Swamcot Dory or the Bicky Fin? He had a Roamer dinghy and I'm sure Eric Coleman would have been so proud of the cabin Peter installed in it. Charles Proudfoot, who now owns the boat, once asked him how he designed it. "Well", Peter replied, "first I took a saw......". A very imaginative, adventurous and yet practical sailor, was Peter. The difficulty in writing about him is not where to start, but where to stop. His talents, his knowledge, his abilities, stretched in a seemingly endless line.

In a world where the media seem to hold in high esteem those who have taken most from life – bigger houses, bigger fortunes, more wives, larger salaries - Peter stood apart, a constant giver and sharer. Friends will remember him as a generous, thoughtful, kind, caring and humorous man. And for this, as well as his many other qualities, he will be missed. Our thoughts go out to his wife Wendy, with whom he had just celebrated his 44th wedding anniversary, and to his children.

No one knows for certain where we go once we die, but I like to imagine Peter as having run before the rising gale of old age, across the turbulent bar of illness and think of him now in a quiet river beyond. He'll be snugged down, at anchor under a weather shore. There'll be something heating on the stove and he'll be sipping his usual whisky with the ice brought from home in a thermos. He'll be listening to the cry of the birds and watching the sun set before turning in. Sleep soundly Peter. Job well done. Ted Jones