Beneteau First 50 and Blue Water cruising

[Racecruiser]

I'm looking at buying a Beneteau First 50 to do the 2009 Blue Water Rally with. Anyone got any opinions on the suitablilty of this yacht do world cruising? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I imagine you mean the Benny Oceanis 50 which is the non-racy aft cockpit model. I recently spent a great week on one in the Med (a 07/08 model) and thought it was an excellent boat. My friend is an experienced offshore racer (and perfectionist boat maintainer) and specified some sensible extras like a slightly taller rig and well cut sails (roller genny, single line reefing main etc).

Last year they sailed down to the Med (part in the Rally Portugal) and this year have cruised further into the Med.

On my trip we had a F7 and a bit more for a long day trip and the boat went very well in some biggish seas - surprisingly fast but manageable and the space on board is very impressive.

As it happens I know she is for sale (reluctantly as they say) so let me know if you want me to alert the owner to your interest. Suggest a pm to me with an email address and phone no.

 

[cthelen]

How exactly does a traveller stop accidental gybes?

Anyone on an offshore passage on a boat of this size is going to be rigging a preventer when necessary.

That said, I don't rate the 50 as a cruising boat, friends have raced one, and keep breaking things when they release ropes in the wrong order.

Well I guess the traveller isn't axactly going to help in itself unless it was mounted mid boom. In that case you would only need about 1/2 the amount of sheeting (rope) to achieve the same task.
Looking at a few pictures of the 50 with the main sail left way out, It just seems like there would be alot of rob brushing across the cockpit on even a simple upwind tack. I guess if you were already close hauled it would be ok. But to me it looked like any slack in the line would be prone to snagging on something or somebody as you made upwind tacks. espeacially if you sailed short handed and you didnt have a free hand to take the slack out of the line as you tacked. Imagine having the main sheet rope snag on one of the two wheels as you tacked, who knows what kind of damage that could cause. I guess basically you just need to pay allot more attention.. not as much room for error than the rigging on like a oceanis. So I think you would have to be at the top of your game at all times... probable fun during a race... but not sure about crossing the atlantic or pacific like that
These are just assumptions. i could be totally wrong. It does look like a fatastic yacht... someone buy me one

 

[snooks]

I imagine you mean the Benny Oceanis 50 which is the non-racy aft cockpit model.

Well seeing this was originally posted 2 1/2 years ago, it's uncertain which First 50 the OP was talking about

 

[cthelen]

Well seeing this was originally posted 2 1/2 years ago, it's uncertain which First 50 the OP was talking about

good point... it could very likely be a previous model. although the title said First 50 it never said a year.