R3
Owner
Joe & Maire Keenan
Provenance
The last of the first batch of three Rankin dinghies built by Eric, circa 1960 / 1961, all with the same internal layout -
- Concave curve to the front edge of the aft seat;
- The main thwarts have curved laminated ends that “hang” from the gunnels;
- Centreline box;
- Three wide bottom boards either side of the hog;
- Side seats that ran from the stern to the mast thwart (other than R3 where they only ran to the main thwart).
Pearse O’Leary bought her in 1966 having answered an add in the “Examiner”. According to his son Frank “at that stage the boat was immaculate, fully varnished inside and outside”. Some years later, Frank’s siblings helped their Dad by using a blow torch on the boat to strip back the varnish, after which the boat was always painted! The family used her in Ardmore and Derrynane over the years. Frank had buoyancy tanks installed in the stem and stern of the boat by Dave O’Keeffe in the 90’s (then having a young family to care for). The O’Leary family sold the boat to Joe English who had Mark Bushe carry out repairs (see R33 for more info). The boat was sold on in 2012 to Martin Ó Treasaigh who kept her mainly in West Cork, introducing his young family to the magic of small boat sailing. Martin sold the boat to the present owners in 2023. The boat at that stage needed some serious TLC and over the winter of 23/24 and 24/25 Owen O’Connell carried out the work to return the boat to as close to its original as possible (see blog article).
