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Displaying items by tag: Red Bull Big Wave Awards

Irish surfing star Conor Maguire has been nominated for Ride of the Year in this year’s Red Bull Big Wave Awards, which recognise the most astounding big wave surfing feats the world over.

He’s also up for Biggest Tow for his breathtaking ride off Mullaghmore Head on 28 October 2020, as filmed by Clem McInerney — a 60-foot monster that’s believed to be the biggest wave ever surfed in Ireland, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

And Conor’s also a nominee for Performer of the Year in a field with such fearless talent as Kai Lenny, who took on the fames Jaws in Hawaii; Grant Baker at the storied Mavericks break in California; and Sebastian Steudtner who took on the mammoth walls of water at Nazaré in Portugal.

A whopping $350,000 is up for grabs in the awards that “honour the athletes pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and celebrate the most death-defying surfing of the season”. The winners will be announced during the 2021 Red Bull Big Wave Awards Show on Friday 29 October.

Published in Surfing

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.