Poole ABEst. 1958 · Parkstone

Boat detail

The Poole AB

A small junior training dinghy designed by Harry Poole in 1958 and built in Poole ever since — about 8ft 6in of forgiving, flexible boat that a child can sail alone or share with a parent.

01

Description

The AB is, as Yachts & Yachting puts it, Poole's answer to the Oppie1 — a short, beamy trainer that served as the junior boat at Parkstone Yacht Club for years. It is deliberately undemanding: a child of around 20kg can sail one solo, and the same hull will take an adult and two small children when the wind gets up or a nervous beginner wants company.

Most boats carry a foam bumper around the bow. That is not decoration — it is a race requirement, and a fair indication of how the class is sailed.

Design and construction

Harry Poole, who lived in Poole, drew the AB in 1958 and also designed an 11ft dinghy, the C-Dog or CD. The AB was promoted as a family dinghy.2 The Parkstone fleet races to a minimum weight of 50.8kg (8 stone), so these are solid little boats rather than flyers.5

Most of what is known about how she was actually built comes from three pieces of paper found with an AB that had been shut in a garage since 1965: the builder's own sales brochure, a letter Harry Poole typed and signed in April 1962, and a magazine boat test from November 1961.8910 Between them they settle the beam, the sail area, the weights and the material: hard chine, marine ply to BSS 1088 specification. They describe the boat as sold, so a hull repaired or re-rigged in the sixty years since is not contradicting them.

Two figures in them disagree, and both are left standing rather than one being quietly preferred. The brochure gives the draught as 2 ft 4 in with the board down; the boat test measured 2 ft 9 in. And the rig: the club's own class card calls it gaff, while the 1961 test — written while the boats were still being built — calls it a sliding gunter on a silver spruce mast.

The weights need the same care. Parkstone race to a minimum of 50.8 kg, which is heavier than the 50 kg all-up weight Harry Poole quoted in 1962 — so the two are not measuring the same thing, whatever the club's figure includes. It is also a limit that fleet races to rather than a rule of the class: the page the club calls Class Rules is the fleet's rules as well. The class measurement rules would settle the draught, the rig and this. They are the outstanding job.

History

Racing fleets regularly numbered 40 or more boats at the class's peak. Numbers later fell away before the class was revived. Richard Woods, who bought AB 50 in 1960, raced them as a boy and was national champion in 1968.2

Fleets sail at Parkstone Yacht Club in Poole Harbour, with some boats also in Ayr.1

The class's own part in the story — when the association or fleet formed, and its role in reviving the AB.

02

Gallery

Boats in the park at Parkstone — the brightwork, the sail numbers, and the names their owners give them — the barn find that came out of a garage in 2026 in the condition she went in, and ABs out on the harbour.

A yellow AB called Sunshine on its launching trolley in the dinghy park, varnished side decks and a blue cockpit cover, with the rest of the fleet rigged around it.
Fig. 03 — Sunshine, in the dinghy park
The mainsail of AB 314 seen from the cockpit against a clear sky, the sail number in red on white cloth with telltales flying.
Fig. 04 — Sail number AB 314
Close-up of an AB's varnished mahogany foredeck and mast, jib set and a blue cover over the side deck.
Fig. 05 — Brightwork
An original Poole AB rigged on her trailer in a field, varnished mahogany hull, Terylene sails on wooden spars, and a yellow lifejacket propped against the trailer hitch.
Fig. 06 — The barn find, rigged
Looking into the barn find's cockpit — original slatted floorboards, varnished side benches, halyard coiled across the deck, and the builder's plaque still fixed to the bulkhead.
Fig. 07 — Sixty years untouched
A yellow 1960s lifejacket with its ties, lying on the grass beside the bow of a varnished mahogany hull.
Fig. 08 — Her 1960s lifejacket
FoxSea, an AB with an orange hull and her name in black script along the side, sailing in Poole Harbour with a young helm giving a thumbs up and a fleet of dinghies behind.
Fig. 09 — AB 418 FoxSea, racing in the harbour
Abarth, a red-hulled AB, sailing away across the harbour, mainsail numbered 111 and stickers along her transom, one young sailor aboard.
Fig. 10 — AB 111 Abarth, heading out
FoxSea sailing past a rock breakwater in bright sun, mainsail numbered 418 and a green-striped jib, one young sailor aboard.
Fig. 11 — FoxSea, off the breakwater
Abarth heeling gently as she sails off the marina, a young sailor at the tiller and a blue cover over the foredeck.
Fig. 12 — Abarth, off the marina
Abarth afloat in calm water off a marina, sails up, red topsides with a white stripe.
Fig. 13 — Abarth, afloat
Axolotl, an AB with pale blue topsides, rigged on her trolley on the slipway with a red and blue mainsail and jib, Poole Harbour behind.
Fig. 14 — AB 193 Axolotl, on the slipway
03

See her race

How the fleet races, the levels a sailor works through, and what a boat needs before it goes out are on the club racing page. The rules themselves are a game: take the helm.

Sources

  1. Yachts & Yachting — Poole AB class page
  2. Richard Woods, “Poole AB sailing” (Sailing Catamarans)
  3. The Golden Dolphin — Parkstone Yacht Club annual magazine, AB class card — The same class card appears in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 issues, unchanged.
  4. Sailwave — Youth Week 2026 results, Parkstone Yacht Club — Final results, 7 August 2026. The AB fleets are split across three sheets.
  5. Parkstone Yacht Club — AB fleet, Notes for Newbies — Describes the Parkstone YC fleet specifically.
  6. Parkstone Yacht Club — AB fleet, About Us — Describes the Parkstone YC fleet specifically.
  7. Parkstone Yacht Club — AB fleet, FAQ — Describes the Parkstone YC fleet specifically.
  8. H. T. R. Poole — “The Poole ‘A.B.’”, the builder’s sales brochure — Undated. The builder’s own printed specification and price list; reproduced in full in that notice.
  9. H. T. R. Poole — letter to an enquirer, 24 April 1962 — Typed and signed by Harry Poole; transcribed and reproduced in that notice.
  10. Ian Souter Clarence, “Watersport boat test: the Poole ‘A.B.’ car-top dinghy” — Reprinted from Watersport, November 1961. Sailed in Poole Harbour, August 1961, in Force 3–4.