The Beginning

The story about how Monkey Business joined our family....

[A sunny day aboard Monkey Business]

I decided to create this blog to keep an online record of our chapter in the story of Monkey Business, a modern take on the old Ships Logbook.

Boats have always been my Dads first love (next to his wife and kids of course…) and have featured a lot in our lives growing up, I’m going to write a separate part on some sailing history in the family which you can find here, this piece will pick up the story in 2020, a year that most of us would rather forget except for the arrival of Monkey Business, the bright light in a dark room!

My Dad turned 60 in 2016 and I had always dreamt about buying him a yacht for his birthday. At the time I had done lots of searching and viewed a number of Ruffian 23s, a popular boat designed and built in Portaferry in the 1970’s by Billy Brown. I got pretty close to buying “Ruff ‘n’ Tumble” in Donaghadee, a well looked after Ruffian owned by Kyle Colville. In the end I got cold feet. While the Ruffians are capable boats, I really wanted something bigger/better and ultimately on the next level. In the end, the timing wasn’t right so the yacht plan was put on the back burner.

{Ruff n Tumble - Ruffian 23]

Four and half years have since rolled past, the yacht plan has always been there cooking in the background, normally on a rolling boil through summer months, back on the simmer through the cold wet winters. My own time over the past few years has been taken up between riding motorbikes, racing cars and snowboarding in winter (with a little work in there too of course!). Dad has been a big support with my racing, coming to nearly all race weekends which are a lot of effort. He enjoys the craic, but motorsports isn’t his passion – sailing is!

[Dad aboard "Splashes" in Greencastle]

In June of this year I had a pretty bad motorbike crash at a race circuit in Belgium, this resulted in badly damaging my right hand & wrist which required surgery for a titanium plate & screws. Recovery has been slow with extremely painful physio 3 times a week. Over the summer my mind keep going back to the yacht, I was feeling a bit over motorbikes, they bit me hard in the ass and at 33 with my own business there is a lot at stake from being parked up with an injury. I was extremely thankful not to be in a worse state. Having not seen my family since Christmas ’19 I began thinking that when things get back to normal I want to focus on spending more time together as a family doing things together, and less time selfishly blasting around on my motorbike (I may revert on this statement at any moment when my wrist heals….). I began to think that it would be the perfect time give the yacht plan a push and make it a reality. It would give us all a bit of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, it would give Mum & Dad something to work on and prepare for happier times and it would give all of us the opportunity to have some great adventures together.

With that, my mind was set. Time to buy a yacht.

I started to have a good look at everything for sale with a rough idea of yacht and budget in my head. Joe O’Leary is a long time family friend, and Dad has sailed lots with Joe over the years on Joe’s yacht.. Joe is a wealth of knowledge on all things yachting so he was going to be my first port of call. What followed was lots of educational phone calls discussing all sorts of boats, their pro’s and cons, doubling and tripling original budget as we went!

Pretty quickly I ended up with a “must have” list, it included: Wheel steering, furling head sail, heating system, pressurised hot & cold water system, accommodation for 6 people, swim ladder and a good selection of Instruments. In the beginning I looked at a few boats that needed some work to get them to the condition that I wanted but pretty quickly decided against this approach instead focusing on well maintained yachts that were “ready to go.”

The first boat I got really excited about was “Miss Molly” an X-Yacht X402. X-Yachts are manufactured in Denmark and know as fast racer/cruiser boats with a cult following. This particular boat had been refitted with a Beneteau First 40 mast, fractionally rigged, 3Di Sails and a refurbished saloon. A lovely beamy boat with a huge wheel, winner of the 1990 “One-Ton Cup" it would certainly “get-up & go." I got pretty far down the road with this boat but was “pipped to the post” and just missed out on her, gutted…. It wasn’t meant to be!

[Miss Molly, what a babe!]

Miss Molly was 40ft in length and had a 13ft beam, a roomy yacht. Having fallen in love with her this now set me down the path of “bigger boats” that still fitted within a realistic budget. I started to rule out boats smaller than 34ft. With a creeping budget the search continued….

Shortly after missing out on Miss Molly I discovered “Monkey Business”, a Beneteau First 38s5. I loved the boat straight away but it was over budget so I keep looking. Everything else that followed didn’t tick all boxes and required certain compromises which just didn’t excite me. I keep coming back to Monkey Business. It was very well equipped, looked in superb condition and had just safely returned from big trips to Iceland and Norway so certainly had a strong reputation. I did a lot of research, but with only 115 of these yachts in the world there wasn’t a great amount of literature online. Anything I did uncover gave glowing remarks on these yachts, solid cruiser/racers, happy to sit at 8 knots all day. I had a look at one for sale in the Caribbean which whilst not as well spec’d or in the same condition as Monkey Business, sat inside the budget. However when I started to do the math on getting her back across the Atlantic and bringing her up to the standard we would want, the gap to Monkey Business had closed.

Then as luck would have it, the asking price on Monkey Business was reduced! Still over my budget, but some “man math's” and a couple of beers later I decided that it was now within reach!

[Man math's]

The boat was berthed in Greenock just outside Glasgow. After lengthy calls back and forth with the broker I made the trip to see the yacht. As soon as I stepped on board I knew it was the one, it looked even better in real life than in the photos and had clearly been very well looked after by it’s previous owners. I made an offer on the yacht and after some further negotiation we had a conditional offer accepted! The sales was subject to the yacht survey coming back clear.

[Monkey Business in Greenock]

Luckily I managed to organise a survey to be carried out the following week. Many of the surveyors were booked out until Christmas. It seems that the whole country has gone boat mad, with people expecting more holidays at home over the coming years. As expected the survey came back all good, the surveyor was very impressed with the yacht so we signed on the dotted line and the deal was finalised.

[Monkey Business getting lifted during her survey]

We were now the proud owners of Monkey Business! Dad just didn’t know it yet 😉

The next step was to plan her journey home. The previous owner (Charlie Craig) agreed to deliver the yacht from Scotland as far as Ballycastle. With a good weather window over the next couple of days I now had to organise someone to bring Monkey Business from Ballycastle to Coleraine.

After a few phone calls trying to find someone, my phone rang later that evening from a guy who said he could deliver Monkey Business from Ballycastle no problem. After a bit more chit chat I though maybe he might know Dad, “Who is your Dad” he asked “my dad is Damian Cunning!” “Aw Jesus Brendan I met you years ago when you were still in nappies” hahahahaha!

It’s a small world. It was Danny Gallagher, a good friend of the family and a proper yachtsman. Danny runs a sail training & experience business called “Sailing North” www.sailingnorth.co.uk. With 30’000 miles and two Atlantic crossings under his belt, I could now relax in knowing that Monkey Business was in safe hands and would be well delivered to her new home at Coleraine Marina.

[Danny Gallagher]

Charlie departed James Watt Marina in Greenock at 10am on the Saturday morning, making good time he arrived in Ballycastle 3.30am Sunday morning. Danny then departed Ballycastle later that morning and had Monkey Business tied up alongside in Coleraine Marina by afternoon. The yacht was now in plain sight of Dad from our house just across the river with no idea it was his 😊

It was finally time to surprise Mum & Dad with Monkey Business. I travelled back to Ireland the following Thursday, with my sister Megan earning major points as she gathered up food and essentials for me to spend the next few days aboard . We had planned the surprise for the following afternoon. I spent a great first night onboard Monkey Business, with a first toast to yacht ownership and plenty of beers enjoyed.

Friday was the longest day I have had for a while, I was pacing the boat and trying to keep hidden as Dad often looks across at the boats with his binoculars so didn’t want to get spotted (It later transpired he had been doing exactly that that morning haha). Megan has been taking part in an online photography course and told Mum and Dad that she had a project to complete for that weekend and at 16.30 they would have to come with her for her “photography project”.

She explained that she wanted to get a photo of them from our house looking over at the boats and then get a photo of them of them standing at the boats with our house in the background.

The plan was that Megan would get them positioned in front of Monkey Business for a photo and then call out “3,2,1 Cheese!!!” this would be my cue to sneak out from the boat and surprise them.

[Part 1 of Megan's "photography project"]

I got the cameras rolling and took a deep breath and listened carefully, “3,2,1, cheese!!!!” I quietly snuck out of the cockpit, armed with a camera. It became obvious pretty quickly that Mum & Dad had no idea I was behind them, I got closer and said “Would you like me to take a photo of the three of you?”

[Part 2 of Megan's "photography project"]

Dad turned round at looked, pausing for a moment, Mum didn’t even turn round at first hahaha. They were both stunned, finally I could relax! Rather than try to describe what happened next I will let the video do the talking:

[The surprise!]

What followed was the best evening I’d had all year! We popped open a bottle of bubbly and let the reality of Monkey Business set in. It was really magical after what’s been a pretty dismal year for everyone. It was amazing to see everyone and to get excited about adventures lying ahead. We were just missing my brother Mark but he was there in spirit (via Facetime haha)

[Our first toast aboard]

That night myself and Monkey Business got battered by 40 knot winds, beam on which didn’t make for a relaxed night of sleep. Paranoid about waking up drifting backwards out the Bar Mouth. I spent most of the night checking mooring ropes and fenders and checking them again!

[Calm before the storm]

The following morning brought sunshine and calm weather, Dad arrived down early like a child on Christmas morning and the little jobs started straight away!

[Straight into the improvements]

Monkey Business already feels like part of the family. We now and we look forward to planning our first adventures in 2021 with family and friends!

Stay tuned!