Replica Rankin Dinghy Display Captivates Visitors at Cork Shopping Centre

25th January 2025

Afloat.ie Team

A fibreglass replica of a Rankin dinghy is displayed at Douglas Court Shopping Centre in Cork, highlighting the vintage design by the Rankin brothers and celebrating the class's enduring legacy Credit: Mary Malone

A Rankin dinghy display was turning heads in Douglas Court Shopping Centre in Cork this weekend as the 12-foot 9-inch dinghy took centre stage in the centre's concourse.

Named after the Rankin brothers who produced the boats in Cobh in Cork Harbour in the 1950s, the vintage class is still going strong and celebrated the staging of its 'World Championships' at Royal Cork Yacht Club last summer.

The model on display at Douglas Court is not of a traditional build but is instead a fibreglass replica of the original design. The boat was built by Blackwater Valley furniture maker and designer Alan Horgan, a former boat manufacturer.

Published in Rankin Dinghy

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The Rankin Dinghy of Cobh, Cork Harbour

A Rankin is a traditional wooden dinghy which was built in Cobh, of which it’s believed there were 80 and of which The Rankin Dinghy Group has traced nearly half.

The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh.

And the name of one of those boats is linked to the gunboat which fought against the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising and later for the emergent Irish Free State Government against anti-Treaty Forces during the Irish Civil War.

It also links the renowned boat-building Rankin family in Cobh, one of whose members crewed on the gunboat.

Maurice Kidney and Conor English are driving the restoration of the Rankin dinghies in Cork Harbour. They have discovered that Rankins were bought and sailed in several parts of the country.