Beneteau First 30 - When sailing matters

Boat Test - First 30

Production boat editor, Barry Henson, test sailed the Beneteau First 30 in the south of France.

One of the things I love about sailing is that there are so many different boat designs and each design is drawn with a certain type of sailing in mind. My own boat, a Hallberg Rassy 45, is an ocean passage maker; and is currently taking me safely across the Pacific. The Beneteau First 30, designed by America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race naval architect, Juan Kouyoumdjian, was drawn with a completely different purpose in mind – the First 30’s goal is to take you first across the finish line. With these thoughts in mind I was excited to take a First 30 for a test sail in Les Embiez, France, to see how well Juan Kouyoumdjian did against this design brief.

IRC

There is no way you can look at the renewed interest in club racing over the last few years without tipping your hat to the IRC. After years of increasingly stripped down and highly-priced racers that were of no use for anything other than going around the cans, new IRC rules allowed builders and designers to create club racers with usable and family friendly interiors - and the buyers (and competitors) came back in droves.

Beneteau responded to the new IRC rules with the ‘First Series’ line of boats. Every boat in the First series (which up to now had been designed by Bruce Farr) reached for the Holy Grail - a fast, IRC race-winning boat with a comfortable interior that can be used for day sailing, weekends away and entertaining.

With several big wins by the First 40, including the Tattersall’s Cup (by Too True, 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race), Beneteau has made a big splash in the IRC. But the First 40 was a Farr design. The big question on my mind was how the move to a new designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian, would effect the First 30 and would she be able to measure up to her bigger stable-mates.

First impressions

Looking at the First 30 from the dock one of the initial things that strikes you is the beam of the boat (3.2 metres) and how far back the beam has been carried. Some other striking features of the First 30 are the hard chine in the hull, a very fine entry, dual rudders and large working cockpit. From the get-go this looks like a race boat.

With swept-back spreaders and no backstay, the stern of the boat is open save for the traveller on a traverse beam. As this is an IRC boat it comes with a swim ladder, presumably to make it easy for your crew to clean the bottom. The boat comes standard with a tiller and an extension. The coamings are angled for comfortable seating and adjustable foot supports give you a comfortable ride as the boat heels.

The cockpit is long and wide with plenty of working room. There’s a good-sized cockpit lazerette to starboard along with storage for a gas bottle. To port is storage for your life raft, assuming that you’re going to be racing category 1 or 2 offshore.

The primaries are Harken 46s and the secondaries are Harken 40s. All lines are led aft through banks of Spinlock jammers. I normally don’t comment on commercial aspects of sailing gear, but I think it is interesting that I haven’t reviewed one production boat in the last year that did not use Spinlock jammers. Somebody, presumably a few somebodies, must be doing a good job in the Spinlock jammer department.

The mainsheet controls are easily accessible by both helmsman and crew. Overall the cockpit is very well laid out.

The rig is a double swept-back spreader rig by Sparcraft. They do the mast, boom and vang. The standard running rigging is Dyneema.

Toe rails are carried forward to the furler, which is nice to see. There is an attachment for carrying a Code Zero and a minimal anchor locker. There are cleats fore and aft.

Down below

The nice thing about the IRC is that you can have a boat with a decent interior, something you can take friends and family out in and not have to be apologetic about the level of amenities, and still race competitively.

The First 30 layout has a small forward-facing nav station with a fold-up seat, a quarter berth aft, a guest cabin forward to port and an owner’s V-berth cabin forward. The head is aft on the starboard side. To port is the galley, which has a two-burner cook top, fridge and sink. It’s small, but functional with pretty much everything you need.

The salon has a long settee to either side, which will provide nice sea berths during overnight races or while on passage. The salon is well lit and ventilated with four opening windows and an opening hatch.

There are two opening windows in the quarter berth aft, two in the head and an opening hatch in the v-berth forward.

All in all this is a very tidy interior, light and very attractive. It’s not the type of thing I’d want to spend two weeks on, but then again that’s not what the First 30 is designed for. She’s designed to win races and to provide a comfortable platform for overnighters or the weekend away.

The engine is a Yanmar 40 hp with a two-blade folding prop.

How does she sail?

Very well. The First 30 is small, but she’s fast, well balanced and she tracks like she’s on rails. The day we went out we had light winds, 8-10 knots from the nor-east. One of the things I noticed about the First 30 was how quickly she powers up.

She’s also a stiff boat. According to the Beneteau sailors on board, this is due to her bulb keel, which projects forward. The keel is designed to balance the boat and to keep the vertical centre of gravity as low as possible. In doing so Beneteau has created a boat that can stay upright without a large crew on the rails.

Another interesting aspect of the First 30’s design is the dual rudders, which are required because of the boat’s beam and hull shape. The steering is light and responsive and like I said, she tracks beautifully.

The First 30 has done well on the European race circuit. On those results Beneteau have built 60 boats with another 100 on order.

This boat offers performance and comfort at an attractive price. The First 30 sells (without sails or instruments) for $181,900 AUD. For more information contact VicSail.

Specifications

Design    Juan Yacht Design
Interior design    Nauta Design
Length    9.81m
Beam    3.20m
Light displacement    3,750kg
Fuel tank capacity    30L - 8 US Gal
Fresh water capacity    160L - 42 US Gal
Max Engine Power (Hp)    20 CV - 20hp