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Displaying items by tag: Mel Morris

So many factors came into play for the 75th Anniversary of the Champions’ Cup (aka the Helmsman’s Championship or the All-Ireland) in GP 14s at Sutton Dinghy Club on October 8th/9th that its weather-imposed compression into a one-day series made for a very intense mix. It went right to the wire, but defending champion Ger Owens of the Royal St. George Yacht Club (who won in National 18s in Crosshaven in 2021).

His regular GP14 partner Mel Morris of East Antrim Boat Club (her father Curly Morris of East Antrim BC won in 1967) moved smoothly into their dynamic duo routine.

As the sun set on a deceptively gentle evening which was the calm before the storm, the salver that now thinks it’s a cup was theirs for the taking.

Published in Sailor of the Month
Tagged under

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.