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Displaying items by tag: Alexandra Basin West

After making a rare Irish call, the Russian Navy anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Chabaneko (650) departed Dublin Port, this morning, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The pilot cutter Dodder escorted the 8,950 tons full load displacement Udaloy II class destroyer out into Dublin Bay as far as the Baily Lighthouse. From there the 30-knot capable destroyer passed the North Burford bouy and headed for the Kish Lighthouse to proceed southbound over the horizon.

The 534ft long vessel was built for the KGB Maritime Border Guard and is heavily equipped with missiles, torpedoes, guns and the ability to carry helicopters.

Admiral Chabaneko had arrived on Friday afternoon and docked at berth 30 in the inner port area within Alexandra Basin West. The last Russian naval visit was taken by one of her half-sisters, Severomorsk, a Udaloy-I class destroyer that docked at Ocean Pier in Alexandra Basin East for a three-day visit in 2009.

Published in Navy

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.