First 36.7, Beneteau's Farr One-Design for Racing and Cruising

The First 36.7 is still racing a quarter century on

Plenty of production boats were sold as one-designs; few still have a functioning class 25 years later. The First 36.7 does. Its North American class association published a recap of the 2026 North American Championship on Lake Ontario, after championships in San Diego in 2025 and Chicago in 2023, and fleets have raced in the Chicago and Bayview Mackinac races and at Helly Hansen NOOD regattas from San Diego to Chicago. That racing life is the single biggest reason a first 36.7 holds its value better than most 20-year-old 36 footers.

Sailing World named it the Best Value of its 2002 Boat of the Year awards, praising its balanced helm and its price. Practical Sailor and sailboatdata both record about 800 boats built, from 2001 onward. Listings often shorten the name to Beneteau 36.7; do not confuse it with the 1996 Berret-Racoupeau First 36s7, a different boat, or with the 2022 First 36, a planing design from the Seascape yard.

Farr's brief: the 40.7 idea in a smaller hull

Beneteau's brochure framed the 36.7 as a successor to the versatile First 35 of the 1980s, with Farr Yacht Design and Beneteau's own design team asked for a no-compromise 36 ft cruiser-racer, adaptable, built to tight weight tolerances and optimizable for IRC or IMS. It followed Farr's First 40.7, and Jim Schmicker of the Farr office told Practical Sailor the 36.7 has a more advanced hull shape, straighter in plan at the sheer, with more volume in the ends for a longer heeled waterline and a generous rudder that keeps its grip when reaching hard.

Weight control was central to the one-design promise. Schmicker said the collaboration between Farr, Beneteau production and spar maker Sparcraft produced a prototype within 100 lb of its target, and that the first production boat was spot on. The keel sections came from Farr's own racing research rather than standard NACA tables.

Built in South Carolina, with a few early fixes

Sailing World reported that the 36.7 was American made at Beneteau's expanded factory in Marion, South Carolina, and Practical Sailor says it was the first First model built there in several years. The hull is laid up with glass and vinylester resin behind the gelcoat to resist osmotic blistering, with a one-piece internal grid carrying mast and keel loads and supporting bulkheads, engine mounts and tanks. The deck is balsa-cored, with solid glass where hardware is through-bolted, and the hull-to-deck joint is glued and mechanically fastened through the toerail. Boats were built to CE category A.

Beneteau America's service manager described three early issues to Practical Sailor: an Edson steering drag link that was too short (a repair kit went to owners of hulls 1 to 33), an undersized washer at a D-2 shroud stemball (hulls 1 to 43 were inspected) and a single broken spreader bar, which Beneteau considered an anomaly. On an early hull, check that these were addressed.

Cruise mode and race mode in one cockpit

The cockpit is the clever part. The aft sections of the seats are removable lockers: take them ashore for racing and the cockpit becomes a T-shaped working space with a proper trim pit in front of the primaries. A full-width traveler sits forward of a large wheel (tillers were more common in Europe), the mainsheet runs to the end of the boom, and halyards and controls lead aft to Spinlock clutches on the cabintop, with Lewmar 48 and 40 self-tailing winches for jib and spinnaker sheets.

Sailing World's judges wanted a better backstay adjuster and more aggressive non-skid. Practical Sailor noted that for a shorthanded crew the big wheel blocks the way to the traveler, and the traveler blocks the way to the companionway, so singlehanders need to be nimble. Cockpit stowage is limited because quarter berths take up the space beneath.

• Removable aft cockpit lockers for a racing trim pit
• Full-width traveler and end-boom sheeting
• Lewmar 48 and 40 self-tailers, Spinlock clutches
• Racing package: deeper keel, three-spreader Sparcraft rig, Navtec rod, Tuff Luff, carbon pole, racing sails

What two test crews measured

Sailing World tested the 36.7 on the Chesapeake after the 2001 Annapolis show in 12 to 18 knots. Upwind the helm felt balanced and powerful, the fine entry barely pounded in a short chop, and the boat responded quickly to trim, with the testers expecting it to surf readily under spinnaker offshore. Practical Sailor sailed with a retired couple near the Olympic Peninsula. In 12 to 13 knots the helm was perfectly balanced but the boat felt slightly underpowered; in 15 knots it sailed close-hauled at 6 knots and held 7.2 to 8.0 knots on a beam reach, steered with two fingers.

Practical Sailor's summary is fair: faster and higher-pointing in light air than standard production cruisers of its size, competitive in one-design or handicap racing, less comfortable than a heavy full-keel boat when pounding into big seas.

The class rules you inherit

Buying a 36.7 to race means buying into its class rules, which were written to control costs and keep amateurs competitive. In the mid-2000s the class limited owners to two new class sails a year and allowed only one professional crew member at most regattas, and Practical Sailor describes an owner-driver rule, a ban on stripping standard equipment for racing and limits on sail inventory.

Those rules are good news for cruisers too. Boats raced in the class must keep their full interiors, and the sail limits create a steady supply of lightly used class sails. When buying, ask for the boat's class history, measurement records and sail inventory with dates.

Three cabins and a very small head

The layout is a smaller version of the 40.7's. Practical Sailor measured saloon headroom at 6 ft 2 in, settees 6 ft 4 in long, a forward V-berth 6 ft 1 in long and 5 ft 3 in wide, and a forward-facing chart table of 31 by 23 in. The L-shaped galley to port has a two-burner stove and a double sink, and the saloon table lifts out, leaving a stainless support that doubles as a foot brace and a sail divider when racing. The joinery is African mahogany with a cherry stain.

Aft, Sailing World's 2002 test boat had mirror-image double cabins, while Practical Sailor reports that US boats were reconfigured with the dividing bulkhead moved to starboard, giving a near-queen berth to port and a single quarter berth to starboard that makes an ideal sea berth. The head is tiny; showers are taken sitting on the toilet.

A 29 hp saildrive and modest tankage

Standard power is a 29 hp Volvo Penta MD2030 on a saildrive, which gave Practical Sailor's test boat quick acceleration and a tight turning circle. Beneteau's brochure lists 75 liters (20 gallons) of fuel and 270 liters (71 gallons) of water, adequate for weekends and regatta deliveries. Many MD2030s are now more than 20 years old, so check hours, raw-water pump and saildrive seal records, or budget for a repower.

What a Beneteau 36.7 for sale costs to buy and keep

Expect roughly $55,000 to $105,000 in 2026, with deep-keel boats carrying a current, class-legal inventory, upgraded electronics and a documented race history at the top. Shoal-draft cruising boats sell for less but make relaxed family cruisers.

Annual running costs typically run $9,000 to $20,000 for slip, insurance, haul-out, sails and rigging, engine service and racing fees. Active racers should budget more for sails.