Review of First Class 7

Basic specs.

The First Class 7 aka Beneteau First Class 7 is a small sailboat designed by the French maritime architect Jean-Marie Finot in the mid eighties. A few hundred boats have been produced. The First Class 7 is built by the French yard Bénéteau.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Interior

The boat is equipped with 4 berths.

Keel

The keel is made of iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated.

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.65 - 0.75 meter (2.13 - 2.43 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

An outboard motor is often used on this boat. In that case First Class 7 will typically require a power of 2 - 3 hp, alternatively 35 - 42 lbs thrust if you prefer an electrical motor. Electric outboards are becoming popular for sailboat owners who want clean instant power with less noise and no exhaust fumes.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for First Class 7 is 2.66, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for First Class 7 is about 116 kg/cm, alternatively 652 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 116 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 652 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for First Class 7 is 2.90.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 54% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for First Class 7 is 33%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 24% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly below average.

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)
Indicates how fast the boat is in light wind:
- Cruising Boats have ratios 10-15
- Cruiser-Racers have ratios 16-20
- Racers have ratios above 20
- High-Performance Racers have ratios above 24
Sail-area/displacement ratio (SA/D ratio): 29.49

Maintenance

Rig

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Jib sheet	7.1 m	(23.3 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	7.1 m	(23.3 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Mainsheet	17.8 m	(58.2 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	15.6 m	(51.2 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for First Class 7 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.