First Yacht 53: Beneteau Renews The Sports Program

First Yacht 53 plan drawing

Some sailors are unfamiliar with the range of modern yachts. They have become too confusing, too voluminous, too little elegant and independent. There's something to it. But then you have the First Yacht 53 in front of you, this boat, with which Beneteau wants to reinvent the performance cruiser and, to a certain extent, itself, developed over a period of more than three years, far longer than usual, and already from Far common beliefs in question. No, this is not a matter of the zeitgeist!

The vertical stern looks almost delicate, despite or because of its enormous width of five meters. It seems to float above the water. Even the double rudders protrude two hand's breadths. And something else reinforces the impression of lightness and elegance: deck and cockpit are on one level and remain completely open to the aft - all the way to the outside of the narrow hull shell.

Even the benches for the helmsman are optically slim: they are hollow, protruding from the teak deck, floating as it were.

It is an image that is almost disturbing - always suitable to make passers-by who are strolling over the pier at Port Ginest at the end of October, the marina south of Barcelona where Beneteau has had its own base for three years and where we have been working as part of the Selection for Europe's yachts of the year that First 53 can extensively test for the first time.

There is a good reason for the sensation caused by the yacht from France: There is hardly anything comparable visually, at least not of similar size or origin. In its simplicity and elegance, the new First is reminiscent of a Wally. Which - as will be shown later - is anything but coincidence.