Beneteau First 30, Juan K - Mich Desj

The FarrOut boys were disappointed by the new Beneteau First 30 when we had a poke around at the Southampton boat show. We were expecting to be entranced but instead were numbed by the poor level of finishing, it maybe that the test boats were rushed out to the boat shows but personally I'd have had someone fairing that keel bulb overnight seeing as though it was directly in the eyes of the public. Stepping from the First 30 onto a J97 turned frowns to smiles; a totter down the pontoon to an Archambault A31 and the smiles turned to leers.

The excellent Swedish blog Blur.se got to have a test sail on the First 30 and have published some polars and a test IRC cert. Worth having a look, click the translate button if your Swedish is rusty: http://www.blur.se/2010/10/12/first-30-polar-irc/#comments

Can we forgive the poor finish quality and stumpy looking mast if it goes like a train and wipes out bigger competition under IRC yet still satisfies the "sell it to the wife as a child friendly cruiser" test?

Still think Steve and Richard preferred the old salty cruiser boat at the boat show, they worry me......