Beneteau First 40.7, the Farr Racer-Cruiser That Became a Class

Why the First 40.7 is still on every short list

Ask a Chicago racer, a Solent club sailor or an Australian offshore crew which production 40-footer they would buy on a budget and the First 40.7 comes up fast. Beneteau gave Farr Yacht Design a brief to draw a cruiser that could win at club level and sell in the hundreds every year. Farr's office spent three years getting it from drawing board to production line, according to Russ Bowler, and the result did exactly what was asked: SAIL reported that Beneteau sold more than 800 First 40.7s over an 11-year life.

Cruising World named it the best cruiser-racer of its 1999 Boat of the Year contest, and in 2001 Sailing World noted that two of the three boats on Australia's Kenwood Cup team were 40.7s. That mix of handicap pedigree and a proper three-cabin interior is why the boat still trades well a quarter century later, and why anyone shopping the brokerage market under the name Beneteau 40.7 should study it as a racing platform first and a cruiser second.

A CHS-era hull that went on to win under IMS

Bruce Farr said the hull grew out of his office's IMS work, with a relatively fine entry for upwind work and straight runs aft for speed off the wind, but with more volume and displacement than a pure racer to carry a cruising interior. He also told Practical Sailor that it was originally optimized for CHS, the British rule that favored heavier boats with full interiors, so its later success in top-level IMS racing was something of a bonus. The aluminum rig scored well under the IMS dynamic allowance introduced in 1996 for cruiser-racers.

The numbers are moderate rather than extreme. Practical Sailor calculated a sail area to displacement ratio of 21.0, a displacement to length ratio of 160.6 and a ballast ratio of about 36 percent. Beneteau's 2008 specification gives 6,970 kg light displacement, a 10.62 m waterline and 98 square meters of upwind sail. The target PHRF was 54 seconds per mile, which puts the boat against designs from 38 to 44 feet.

• Deep lead keel (2.40 m, 2,707 kg) or shoal cast iron keel (1.90 m, 2,764 kg)
• Sparcraft fractional rig with triple spreaders and rod standing rigging
• Optional Navtec hydraulic backstay, standard on the First Series race package
• Updated rudders with carbon stocks built by Tides Marine on later boats

Upwind targets, surfing speeds and the 20-knot threshold

Sailing World's test off Falmouth, Massachusetts saw 7.3 knots upwind in a building 15-knot breeze, more than 8 knots under a 105 percent jib in 18 knots true and 10 knots with the spinnaker set and the wind on the quarter. Practical Sailor sailed one on Lake Michigan in 8 to 12 knots and logged 5.8 to 6.2 knots with a 150 percent genoa, then 6.75 knots hardened up to about 36 degrees apparent. Owners reported 8 to 10 knots downwind in 12 to 15 knots of breeze at high jibe angles.

David Hardy, who races Turning Point in the Chicago fleet, told Sailing World that upwind targets hover around 7 knots, that one or two inches of traveler can be worth two tenths of a knot, and that his best surf was 16.8 knots. He also said the boat gets to be a handful beyond 20 knots of wind, when mistakes compound instantly. That matches the general reputation: easily balanced and stiff in moderate air, demanding when it blows hard with a symmetric kite up.

Racing a 40.7 today

A one-design class formed in Chicago soon after launch and has been a fixture of the Helly Hansen NOOD regatta ever since. Class rules keep cushions and the head door aboard, so boats stay habitable, and Hardy's team races with 10 or 11 people using a symmetric spinnaker. The calendar there runs from the Colors Regatta through the NOOD, the Chicago to Mackinac race and the Verve Cup, and points between the top three boats can come down to a single race.

Elsewhere the boat races under PHRF, ORC or IRC. A buyer who wants to join a fleet should check the class rules for sail measurement and equipment before buying, because a cruising-spec boat with a furling genoa and fixed prop will need money spent to be competitive.

Removable lockers, three doubles and one head

The cockpit trick that everyone remembers is the set of removable lockers aft of the slatted teak seats. Bolted in, they are seating and stowage for fenders, lines and spare headsails; lifted out, they give the trimmers stand-up access to the primaries and expose foot braces for the mainsheet trimmer. The double-ended mainsheet runs forward along the boom and back to clutches on both sides, so the main can be trimmed from the rail. Primaries are Lewmar 50 self-tailers, with Lewmar 44s on the coachroof, and the wheel is a 63 inch destroyer type that lets the driver sit well outboard.

Below, there is one layout: two mirror-image aft cabins with roughly 78 by 60 inch berths and about 6 ft 3 in of headroom, a forward cabin with a 7 ft 3 in V-berth, and a single head forward that the forward cabin can reach privately. The saloon has a 44 inch drop-leaf table on the centerline, which racers dislike because it eats space for sail bags. The galley is L-shaped with a double sink and Force 10 two-burner stove, but the top-opening icebox lid forms most of the counter. A large forward-facing nav station has a 41 by 24 inch chart table, and a central manifold routes several hoses to one through-hull.

The keel question every buyer must ask

In May 2014 the 2006-built First 40.7 Cheeki Rafiki lost her keel about 720 nautical miles southeast of Nova Scotia on a delivery from Antigua to Southampton and capsized; her four crew were never found. The keel was held by ten bolts through the outer hull and a bonded inner structural molding, and the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch found that the design met the construction standards in force when she was built. The investigation focused on the bond between the hull and that inner molding, and the boat had a history of groundings and repairs. Practical Sailor also recalled that another 40.7, Barracuda, lost its keel in 2007 after pounding on the bottom in heavy seas.

None of this means the type is unsafe, but it does mean the hull to keel interface is the single most important item on a survey. Practical Sailor noted that some buyers of early 2000s Beneteaus have the keel dropped to inspect the bolts, the bonding and the matrix, and called that caution cheaper in the long run. On a boat with a racing or charter history, budget for it.

Running a 40.7 in the US

Running costs are typical of a 40 ft fin-keel sailboat. Slip, haul-out and bottom paint, insurance and routine engine and rigging service put annual costs at roughly $9,000 to $22,000 excluding depreciation, with the top of that band reserved for boats that race seriously and replace sails every few seasons. Racing sails are the swing factor: a competitive one-design inventory costs far more than the engine ever will.

Original boats used a Volvo saildrive of about 30 hp, which owners told Practical Sailor pushed the boat at 5 to 7 knots; Beneteau's 2008 sheet lists 40 hp. Saildrive diaphragm replacement intervals, rod rigging age and the condition of the original rudder bearings are the predictable big-ticket items.

The 1994 IMS 40.7 and later First 40 are different boats

Two other Beneteaus cause confusion in listings. The First IMS 40.7 of 1994 was a separate Farr design (number 289) built in tiny numbers, five according to sailboatdata, with a much lighter 5,125 kg displacement and a racing interior. If a listing shows a 1994 build date, check which boat it is.

The successor, the Farr-designed First 40 launched in 2007 and 2008, is a foot longer, beamier and lower, with more righting moment and a T-bulb option. It replaced the 40.7 in the catalog and has its own guide on this site. Do not assume parts, sails or handicap certificates carry over between the three.