Beneteau First 10R
2007 January 6
New one-design
The First 10R is a new Beneteau model that appears to be aimed at pleasing a wide range of sailors. Obviously the primary goal for this new design is one-design racing, but a comfortable interior has been added to this. So, if you never intended to race the boat but you were after a small cruising boat with sparkling performance this might be the boat for you. Who doesn't want sparkling performance? Given that this design comes out of Bruce Farr's office I think we can be guaranteed that the boat will live up to its performance expectations.
This is a good-looking boat. The high freeboard is well hidden by careful striping. The ends are short and in keeping with the quest for DWL and sailing speed. The D/L is 184 and the L/B is 2.98. This is a medium displacement, beamy boat. I don't have hull lines but the BWL looks broad for good initial stability and draft is 6 feet, 7 inches with a lead bulb on a cast iron fin. The bulb is very beautifully shaped with a beaver tail and an attractive complexity to its overall shape. I find it interesting that we have arrived at a point in yacht design where it is not unusual for a 32-foot, 9-inch boat to have 6 feet, 7 inches of draft. The 10R owes part of its hull shape to the IRC with an eye to that rule becoming internationally dominant in the future.
The deck is laid out to combine comfort elements with racing ergonomics. There are seatbacks forward in the cockpit. The cockpit seats are relatively short so you are not going to stretch out for a nap on these seats. The seat backs are also low so if you lean back they may hit you right in the kidneys. They could be higher but that would begin to interfere with the ergonomics of racing. The seatbacks stop short of the large diameter wheel and the helmsman sits on the side decks with foot bensons molded into the cockpit sole to help him stay up to weather.
Obviously, for a racing boat you want a minimal cabintrunk, but this would hamper the interior layout so the 10R has a high and long cabintrunk. It's nicely styled. The sheeting angle for the genoa is 11.5 degrees and for the non-overlapping jib it is 15 degrees. These are wide sheeting angles considering ideal sheeting angles would be closer to 7 to 9 degrees. But this is compensated for by using a barberhauler system that allows the clew of the jibs to be pulled inboard, simulating closer track locations. This ensures that both sails are working together. The SA/D is 21.3. Spreaders are swept 20 degrees.
The interior is laid out with the head forward. That explains the long cabintrunk. There are double quarterberths port and starboard with the starboard quarterberth being really large. The galley is more than adequate and there is a sit down nav station to starboard. The saloon is symmetrical settees around a drop leaf table. This will make a comfortable interior for a couple to cruise. There is tankage for 26 gallons of water and 20 gallons of fuel. The standard auxiliary is a 21-horsepower diesel Yanmar model 3YM20 with a saildrive.
To my eye this design looks to be a good all-around boat. If enough are sold to develop fleets this boat could provide some fun one-design racing.
This is a good-looking boat. The high freeboard is well hidden by careful striping. The ends are short and in keeping with the quest for DWL and sailing speed. The D/L is 184 and the L/B is 2.98. This is a medium displacement, beamy boat. I don't have hull lines but the BWL looks broad for good initial stability and draft is 6 feet, 7 inches with a lead bulb on a cast iron fin. The bulb is very beautifully shaped with a beaver tail and an attractive complexity to its overall shape. I find it interesting that we have arrived at a point in yacht design where it is not unusual for a 32-foot, 9-inch boat to have 6 feet, 7 inches of draft. The 10R owes part of its hull shape to the IRC with an eye to that rule becoming internationally dominant in the future.
The deck is laid out to combine comfort elements with racing ergonomics. There are seatbacks forward in the cockpit. The cockpit seats are relatively short so you are not going to stretch out for a nap on these seats. The seat backs are also low so if you lean back they may hit you right in the kidneys. They could be higher but that would begin to interfere with the ergonomics of racing. The seatbacks stop short of the large diameter wheel and the helmsman sits on the side decks with foot bensons molded into the cockpit sole to help him stay up to weather.
Obviously, for a racing boat you want a minimal cabintrunk, but this would hamper the interior layout so the 10R has a high and long cabintrunk. It's nicely styled. The sheeting angle for the genoa is 11.5 degrees and for the non-overlapping jib it is 15 degrees. These are wide sheeting angles considering ideal sheeting angles would be closer to 7 to 9 degrees. But this is compensated for by using a barberhauler system that allows the clew of the jibs to be pulled inboard, simulating closer track locations. This ensures that both sails are working together. The SA/D is 21.3. Spreaders are swept 20 degrees.
The interior is laid out with the head forward. That explains the long cabintrunk. There are double quarterberths port and starboard with the starboard quarterberth being really large. The galley is more than adequate and there is a sit down nav station to starboard. The saloon is symmetrical settees around a drop leaf table. This will make a comfortable interior for a couple to cruise. There is tankage for 26 gallons of water and 20 gallons of fuel. The standard auxiliary is a 21-horsepower diesel Yanmar model 3YM20 with a saildrive.
To my eye this design looks to be a good all-around boat. If enough are sold to develop fleets this boat could provide some fun one-design racing.
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