The revival of the Rankin Class continues apace in Cork Harbour with two further boats located in the campaign to restore the dinghy fleet.
“It might have seemed a pipe-dream when we started, but we now have an active fleet of 35 and others which we still hope to reactivate,” Maurice Kidney, one of the two enthusiasts who have driven the revival, says.
“All going back to how great the original design and build was by the Rankin brothers, Eric and David and Eddie Twomey,” says the other member of the revival duo, Conor English. “For sixty years or more these boats have been around and now they are into a new era.”
The Rankin dinghy is a 12ft. 9in, clinker-built wooden, versatile, stable. Following the revival, they are now a thriving classic boat.
Restoration Pride — Rankin restorer Owen O’Connell (right) with Andrew Crosbie and his wife at the launch of the newly restored dinghy in Cork Harbour
What is it about old boats that motivates people to preserve, reconstruct and rebuild them?
I put that question to Andrew Crosbie at his home in Currabinny, opposite Crosshaven, when he added the latest boat to be recovered and returned to the renowned Rankin dinghy fleet of Cork Harbour which dates its original history back to the roots of the Rankins in the mid-1950s when Eddie Twomey and Eric Rankin produced the line drawings of the Rankin prototype. The first two boats were built in July 1956 by the brothers Eric and David in Eric's workshop on Lynch's Quay, Cobh.
“You can’t really forget your past. There is something always to be remembered and preserved for the future,” Andrew told me.
The boats were an integral part of the RCYC when it was based in Cobh. They proved extremely popular. “Their light construction made them easy to handle and effortless to row, motor or sail, so they were an ideal family boat for Cork Harbour conditions," the Rankin enthusiasts say. When the RCYC club moved to Crosshaven, they became a mode of river transport, for commuting ashore before the days of RIBs and the RCYC marina was built.
Across the river from Crosshaven, at David Crosbie’s home, one of those punts, then used as transport to the yachts at the RCYC, was revealed in her new glory after a year’s reconstruction work by the Rankin Class restorer in Cobh, Owen O’Connell. There was a gathering to mark the latest addition to the historic fleet and Andrew said he has another Rankin dinghy which can be restored, so the revival will continue.
Craft Check — Conor English admires the restoration work on a Rankin dinghy during its unveiling in Cork Harbour
There are rewards to being a Marine Correspondent and one of those is when dedicated people deliver on the undertaking they gave when first outlining what they plan to do. Back in 2014, I first met Maurice Kidney from Cobh and Conor English from Crosshaven who told me they intended to find and restore the Rankin fleet to active sailing, even though many of them had been lost, or disappeared.
At the ‘launch’ of the latest Rankin, the Class “World Championships” for this year were announced, to be hosted by the RCYC, on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28.
“It’s nice to have the ‘Worlds’ and we have repatriated boats from France and England, with Rankins from Ardmore, Kinsale, Crosshaven, Cobh, all linking together into the fleet. said Maurice Kidney.
On the Podcast, Andrew Crosbie talks about the restoration of the latest Rankin, Maurice Kidney recalls the ‘pipedream’ which started their revival and Conor English outlines the plan for this year’s Rankin Worlds.
Listen to the podcast below:
