Beneteau First Class 7.5

In 1982 yacht designers Jean-Marie Finot and Jacques Fauroux designed a small high-performance yacht with the specific purposes of training and one-design racing. The product was built by Beneteau and became known as the First Class 8.

The yacht proved extremely successful in Europe as both a club and private boat and over 1000 units were sold over the ensuing 20 years.

The original concept was to take people - especially young people - to the next level from dinghy or skiff sailing into the world of competitive keelboat racing. Many top-rated European yachtsmen and women will tell you that they cut their sailing teeth on a First Class 8.

The replacement for the now-ageing First Class 8 had to be something that would again fill this criterion and yet be more modern. It had to contain all the aspects of contemporary yacht racing to hone the skills of young hopefuls and yet still be an exciting yacht for experienced campaigners.

The immensely powerful and supportive French Sailing Federation got involved with Groupe Finot and Beneteau to design and build a modern, versatile and high-performance one-design yacht which would be equally at ease entering a club race, training the young or performing in a high-level match-racing series.

And so the First Class 7.5 was born.

A CLOSER LOOK
The 7.5 was first seen in prototype form at the 2004 Paris Boat Show and gained instant interest in Europe and around the world. Soon the Beneteau factory was at full capacity keeping up with orders from clubs all over Europe.

The first boats to arrive here in Australia are a fleet of six bought by the Sandringham Yacht Club in Victoria.

According to David Beck from Sundance Yacht Sales who brokered the deal, the club was looking for a boat that would equally fit the bill as a training vessel and as a corporate-race fleet boat.

 "These boats can be sailed by crew of up to six experienced sailors or they can be sailed with one experienced skipper and a crew of less-experienced people," he said.

The 7.5 is a trailerable boat with a hydraulically-operated folding keel. Construction is a resin-infusion process which optimises consistency of weight and quality necessary for one-design compliance.

The rig is fractional with a slightly overlapping headsail. The headsail is on a very small furler making it easy to stow or set during spinnaker work. It can also help with hardstand storage making the boat quick to rig and de-rig.

The 7.5 can be sailed with either a symmetrical or asymmetrical spinnaker. The symmetrical spinnaker setup is optional but according to Beck, most people will take it as it's comparatively inexpensive and adds to the versatility of the package.

Also optional is an outboard motor bracket and the trailer. If fitted, the outboard can be removed for racing and placed in the central locker located in the cockpit over the keel, thus taking the weight from the transom to low-down amidships.

The keel is an injected composite fin with a lead 'shoe' over the bottom half. With the keel down, the boat is quite stable at rest and yes, it is self-righting. Draught is 0.9m with the keel up and just over two metres with the keel lowered.

The hull is fairly beamy at 2.54 metres and the design carries a lot of this beam aft giving it a large cockpit that's ample for six adults.

Forward of the mast is a small cuddy cabin for dry storage and which also houses the hydraulics for the keel.

The mast itself is an anodised aluminium spar with a single set of swept-back spreaders. A spinnaker pole track is standard so you can easily retro-fit the symmetrical kite gear if you didn't take up the option.

There is an interior carbon bowsprit in the starboard side of the hull which slides into a glass/epoxy tube.

The running rigging consists of main, genoa and kite halyards, a 6:1 mainsheet, 12:1 boom vang, 24:1 backstay system, main traveller, main outhaul, single reefing line, bowsprit tackline, tweakers, genoa and kite sheets leading to a pair of Harken 16 primary winches.

ON THE WATER
We took the 7.5 out for a squirt on a particularly nice autumn day in Melbourne. Trouble was, there wasn't much of a breeze and what there was seemed to be dying in favour of an approaching sea breeze.

That said, we had a great sail and got enough pressure to get an idea of how these quick little boats operate.

 First of all, they're a snap to rig. The Horizon main was loose-footed and raised smoothly on roller cars. We got it up mainly by hand with just a tweak on the winch to tension it. The jib was a hank-on affair again by Horizon Sails that we raised by hand. According to Rob Ironmonger, manager of the Sailing Academy at Sandringham YC, the sails have intentionally been cut a little smaller than the Beneteau sail plan: "Here in Melbourne, we are generally sailing in 15–20 knots of breeze and it's not often light, so we've depowered the boat a bit to allow for that," he said. Ironmonger went on to say that it's still a powerful boat and it needs a bit of caution.

"We've got two headsails, one for light weather and one for heavy weather and the main is not quite as roachy as it could be," he added.

We headed out in about eight knots of breeze and the 7.5 powered up nicely to windward. It was only the second time the boat had been out so we were all still well inside the learning curve. Rob had the most experience and said that in about 15kt the boats get up onto the plane and really get going.

According to Beneteau they are capable of in excess of 20 knots of boatspeed.

We certainly didn't experience that but we did crack an asymmetrical kite and found that we could hold it shy to around 60 degrees. The kites can be launched from a bag on the foredeck or, as we did, straight out of the cuddy cabin.

The 7.5 certainly feels like a thoroughbred. It likes to stay in the groove to windward and boatspeed suffers if you let it fall off. I surmised that it'd be an easy boat to sail reasonably well, but as the crew tried to squeeze the last few per cent out of it, the task would become more difficult.

Like any good match-racing boat, it would be difficult to sail right on the edge of its performance curve.

With its deep rudder, the 7.5 is sensitive and manoeuvrable. It's tender too and will be helped in a blow with a few sturdy crew on the rail. In our light airs, however, we were better off with one or two to leeward.

We sailed it up and down for a while and soon got the hang of it. The sheets were light and the sails very easy to handle. The kite was easy to set and stow in the cuddy cabin and Dave Beck was impressed to able to trim it from a handy spot between the mast and the cabin.

As always happens the breeze came up a bit after out photographer headed for shore, and when it did we had a bit of fun reaching and getting the feel of the boat.

After our sail, I compared notes with yachting legend Lou Abrahams who had also recently sailed the boat. Lou agreed that it would tricky. "They're going to be sensitive to backstay tension as well as outhaul and traveller positions," said Lou."But it's those sorts of things that make a good training boat."

Overall, I found the boat a simple, easy boat to sail in the light winds but one that I reckon could catch out the unwary in a bit of a blow.

It's certainly modern, not expensive, easy to rig and would make a great club or training boat.

HIGHS