ON TEST // FIRST 36
IS THE BENETEAU FIRST BACK TO ITS ICONIC BEST WITH THIS LIGHTWEIGHT, SPORTY CRUISER-RACER FOR ALL LEVELS OF SAILORS?
TOBY HODGES
Where: La Rochelle, France
Conditions: 5-12 knots calm water
Model: Largely standard with options including bowsprit, masthead gennaker, Code 0 and tri radial North sails
You might not appreciate it at first glance, but this could well be the best performance production yacht we’ll see for some time. This realisation creeps up on you slowly, and is further confirmed the more time you spend aboard the new First 36.
I’m far from alone in thinking this. On page 28 you’ll see the First 36 won the highly competitive performance category in this year’s European Yacht of the Year competition – and with unanimous votes from the 12-strong jury.
The First 36 is neither brash nor sexy. Rather, it’s modest, simple even, but, as you soon discover, ergonomically brilliant. It’s not perfect of course – acomparatively small and fiddly heads compartment ensures that – but it is a superb marriage of design, engineering and industrial nous. All of which begs the question, is this finally a return to the dual purpose cruiser-racer roots of the First?
FIRST AND FOREMOST
What’s in a name? A lot. More than 25,000 yachts in over 70 different model formats have launched bearing the First branding over the last 45 years. These boats gained a reputation for offering cruising comfort combined with race-winning potential, all at an acceptable price point. That hasn’t really been the focus for many years – until now perhaps.
This 36 was conceived initially in 2018 by Seascape, the sportsboat specialists which Groupe Beneteau bought and rebranded the year before. It became a major collaboration between the brands, their designers and engineers. This is the Slovenian yard’s first new Beneteau, tasked with reviving that dual purpose ethos of First and designed to bridge the gap between its sportsboats and the larger, more luxurious French-built First 44 and 53.
Seascape founders and mini Transat sailors, Andraz Mihelin and Kristian Hajnšek, have collaborated with Sam Manuard on all their designs to date. The racing scene has since caught up and Manuard is now the in-demand Class 40 and IMOCA designer.
Mihelin defines their creation concisely: “It’s designed with one purpose: to motivate people to sail more.” That’s quite the task! Yet since I first sailed with Mihelin on the
