Refurbishment of Rankin R3

by Owen O’Connell

In late 2023 Joe and Marie Keenan bought an “old” Rankin. The Rankin was owned by Martin Ó Treasaigh of Skibbereen so on the appointed day, the 1st November, Joe Keenan, Maurice Kidney and myself travelled down to Skib to view the boat fully tooled up with a new combo trailer hitched to the car. Having arrived, the boat was inspected, poked at, crawled over and talked about until the deal was finally done. The result for once was two happy sailors on the day - he who bought the boat and he who sold it!

Nov-Dec, 2023

New owners, hidden corners and the ‘Sink Test’ to establish reality.

Dec 13, 2023

After the dust had settled, the boat was brought to the breakers yard. Current state on initial inspection included fore and aft sealed bulkheads fitted by Dave O’Keeffe in the mid 90’s. Dave also changed the side seats to single laths. The fixing of the chain plates looked a bit ropey. The curved front seat had perished and been replaced by a very rough repair. The garboards had been repaired with an array of materials in a hopeful manner. The centre thwart was just about hanging in there.

Dec 16, 2023

Removing 20 plus years of lovingly applied paint, GRP Epoxy etc revealed a classic Rankin.

Jan 11, 2024

With the decision to return the internals of the boat to their original layout, the aft bulkhead compartment was stripped out. The forward thwart was also removed and a temporary building base set up to accept test pieces to establish the angle of the laminated bend on the end of the new thwart.

Jan 23, 2024

A form made out of layers of ply was constructed to match the established curve. It was also made wider than the seat as the curve needed to lie along the hull which tapered in. The shape was made up from 13 sheets of 1.5mm Sapele, glued together by placing in a vacuum gluing bag.

Feb 2, 2024

The temporary base was adjusted to align with the top of the box and final dry fitting carried out. The ends of the Meranti thwart were cut to size, scarfed to the laminated curves and glued up and cleaned off.

Feb 17, 2024

I felt the boat should be stiffened up some more following installation of the new forward thwart so I decided to install the aft thwart. The boat was stripped back in the area, an additional piece added on to the transom knee as this had been cut off with the installation of the aft bulkhead and the transom brace was re-glued to the transom as it was found to be parting company with its neighbour. New aft seat supports were made up, shaped and glued in place using the same method as on R61. All the aft seat pieces were milled and dry fitted. It was only at that stage I realised one of the new seat supports would need to be redone as the underlying plank was defective and needed to be replaced - so change of plan.

Feb 29, 2024

So turn the boat over and start on the planking!

On removing half the keel and one of the garboards a dodgy hog raised its head so that needed to be repaired, new pieces were scarfed and cut into the hog, glued and planed to shape. A strip of 2.5mm thick Sapele veneer was glued to the surface of the existing hog. Short pieces of timber were used on each clamp to maintain the existing curve of the hog.

Mar 11, 2024

Eight sections of existing planks had to be replaced, some nearly 8ft long. This was done by scarfing and gluing. The new sections were held in place by clamps where possible and using temporary screws through the overlaps with plywood washers to apply pressure on the joint.

Mar 12, 2024

Then I found the remaining part of the existing keel was in bad order, with the timber being brittle. All the existing keel wood was removed and replaced including the cheeks to the daggerboard box.

Mar 14, 2024

When the existing defective planking was cut out, the aft ends of the existing bottom boards were saved. They were cleaned up and re-glued in place. To complete that part of the works 2.5mm thick Sapele veneer was clamped down using timbers across the gunnels and glued down to the top of the existing bottom boards. The edges were cleaned up using a flush bit router and block plane where required.

Apr 5, 2024

Running boards were fitted and the water line marked out ready for paint and varnish. The boat was then turned rightway up and the aft seat fitted in place ( no picture!).

Apr 19, 2024

Old newspapers, masking tape, varnish( Epifanes) and paint (International Ivory).

Apr 21, 2024

More of the same on the outside.

Apr 25, 2024

Keel band fitted, loaded on her new combo trailer and the obligatory ‘sink test’ thus completing part one of the works.