The 2024 season — 88 on the books, and a name on a trophy twice

Drawn from the AB Class report by Richard Jennings in The Golden Dolphin 2025, Parkstone Yacht Club’s annual magazine. The full report is in that issue.

The fleet kept growing

88 sailors were on the books by the end of the summer season — the continuation of a rise that has been running for several years. The Spring Series put nine boats in Bronze, ten in Silver and six in Gold, and at one point or another 37 CAP boats came to a start line, which is a great many small boats and slightly startled parents for one committee boat to sort out.

The season opened with the AGM, and with thanks to Becky Steele, who had been running some part of the fleet for five years.

The number that stands out

Parkstone’s own figures for the 2024 summer, shared at a class captains’ meeting, put AB Sunday sailing as the best-attended event anywhere in the club: 427 sessions sailed, an average of nearly 27 boats a week.

For a class of small wooden boats that only sails in one harbour, that is a remarkable thing to be able to say.

Pirate Camp, and a dog show

Nearly 140 pirates descended on Cleavel Point, and for once the long-range forecast turned out to be true. Glamping tepees, wood-fired pizza, a barbecue, a treasure hunt — and the first AB pirate dog show, judged on fancy dress, tricks, agility and the quality of the eyes. It ended with an impromptu firework display and an emergency search for a lost wedding ring, only one of which the report hopes to repeat.

The Brownsea pursuit race was weather-affected again. Rather than attempt the channel crossing, the fleet ran a handicap pursuit race inside Parkstone Bay.

A first in 63 years

The Autumn Series took 51 entries, with 37 boats out on the best day — the fleet’s biggest turnout to that point.

The series winners were Evan Bailey in CAP, Otto Henry in Bronze, Ava Dobner in Silver and Nathan Jennings in Gold. Three of those four are the children of former AB sailors. Two sail the same boat a parent sailed and a grandparent built. And one of them put his name on the same Gold Fleet trophy his father had won 28 years earlier — the first time that has happened in the Penny Cup’s 63-year history.

That is the kind of thing this register exists to record. If your family is somewhere in it, tell us and we will add the boat.