Beneteau First 44 Review, One Hull Built Two Very Different Ways

The Beneteau First 44 closes the gap in a rebuilt range

For a few years after 2016 the First name barely existed outside small sportsboats. Beneteau then launched the big Biscontini First 53, bought the Slovenian builder Seascape and rebranded its Sam Manuard boats as Firsts, and set about filling the middle. The Beneteau First 44 arrived in 2022, after the First 36 had been announced that January, and Beneteau's brand director Yann Masselot placed it in the line of 40 to 45 ft Firsts that includes the 40.7, the 45f5 and the later First 40 and 45. It made its US debut at the Miami International Boat Show in February 2023.

Roberto Biscontini, whose resume includes America's Cup racers as well as Beneteau's larger yachts, drew the hull; Lorenzo Argento did the exterior and interior styling; and engineering went to Mer Forte, the firm behind the Figaro Beneteau 3. Beneteau says the boats are assembled in a dedicated workshop.

High topsides, but a slippery bottom

From the dock the First 44 looks like any modern cruiser: tall topsides, a wide stern and twin rudders. Yachting Monthly's Theo Stocker pointed to what sits underneath. There are no hard chines to inflate interior volume, the waterline is narrow, the canoe body is rounded to reduce wetted surface, and both the bow and the stern are pinched in at the waterline. Yachting World added that Biscontini gave it a proportionately narrower waterline beam and slightly more rocker than the First 53, trading a little early surfing for better light air speed.

That bias toward light winds is deliberate. Yachting World pointed out that summer winds in southern England and the Mediterranean are Force 3 or less at least half the time, and its testers slipped along at 4 knots under Code 0 on a glassy sea, then made a solid 6 knots in 7 to 8 knots of true wind with bursts of 7.5 knots in the puffs. The sailboatdata figures show a 12.82 m waterline on a 13.17 m hull, a displacement to length ratio of about 141 and a sail area to displacement ratio of about 22.

First 44 or First 44 Performance

Beneteau builds one hull and one interior layout but two quite different boats on top. The cruising First 44 has the mast set further aft, four winches within reach of both helms, a fixed centerline mainsheet point (a traveler is optional), a 1 m molded bowsprit with integrated anchor roller and two tack points, and an electrically folding transom platform over a small tender garage. The First 44 Performance, aimed at crewed racing, adds a pit area with extra winches and cross-winching clutches, a longer carbon sprit, a foam non-skid cockpit sole and a traveler, and it saves weight by deleting the windlass and its battery and fitting lithium service batteries.

Yachting Monthly estimated that choosing the Performance package with its taller carbon rig and 2.6 m keel saves about half a tonne. SAIL's launch figures give 22,708 lb light and 1,140 sq ft of main and genoa for the cruising boat against 21,605 lb and 1,260 sq ft for the Performance, whose overall length grows to 48 ft 1 in with the longer sprit.

• Optional water ballast, one 300 liter tank each side filled by electric pumps from the helm in three to four minutes
• Yachting World's cruising test boat had the optional carbon two-spreader mast, 1.8 m taller than standard
• Below-deck furler on the Performance; flat-deck furler on Yachting Monthly's cruising boat
• Asymmetric spinnakers up to 207 square meters, the size Yachting Monthly flew on its test boat

Twin rudders that do not feel numb

Twin rudders often kill the feel on modern cruisers, but both magazines found the opposite here. Yachting World called the steering finger-light, responsive and rewarding in light air, and Yachting Monthly, sailing a cruising boat with North 3Di sails in a shifty 8 to 15 knot northeasterly on the Solent, liked the gradual build of weather helm and the way trim changes came through the wheels. It suggested a little more cable tension and Dyneema halyards, because the stretchy halyards on the test boat let the luffs crinkle.

Helm stations are well thought out, with an outboard seat, folding foot chocks, room for a plotter on each pedestal and buttons for the ballast pumps, lights and transom. The cruising deck works well shorthanded, but Yachting Monthly found the winches ahead of the wheels congested when main, genoa and kite were all in play. Under power the single 57 hp Yanmar pushed the boat at 8.0 to 8.5 knots at 2,600 rpm and 8.5 to 9.0 knots at 3,000 rpm.

Three cabins, two heads and a fore and aft dinette

There is only one interior. The full-width saloon has eye-level hull windows, a fore and aft dinette for six to port that lowers electrically into a double, a 1.9 m settee to starboard and an aft-facing chart table big enough for a paper chart under a 12 inch plotter. The L-shaped galley has a large top and front opening fridge and a single sink. The owner's cabin forward has an island berth and its own head with a folding shower screen, and the two identical aft cabins have big doubles and hanging lockers. Yachting Monthly measured every berth at least 2 m long and 160 cm wide.

Finish is clean rather than lavish. Both reviewers noted missing overhead lockers and some wasted boxed-in space, and Yachting Monthly wanted more solid wood edging, though it accepted that the simpler fit-out saves weight and keeps the price sharp. Tanks live under the berths: 200 liters of fuel aft to port, 350 to 370 liters of water forward and an optional extra water tank aft.

SV Lenny and the 2023 Transpac

The most convincing US test so far was offshore. SV Lenny, a brand-new First 44 in racing configuration commissioned in Marina del Rey by Naos Yachts, came out of the molds about 10 weeks before the 2023 Transpac start and still finished the 2,225 mile course to Honolulu in 11 days, 5 hours and 44 minutes, second in class and ninth overall under ORR. The skipper said he had never been more at ease offshore and praised the boat's reaching speed and the lack of technical problems, though the crew did have to go up the mast in Hawaii to free a jammed genoa.

Budgeting for a First 44 in the US

Annual running costs for a 46 ft performance cruiser in the US typically fall between $18,000 and $42,000 excluding depreciation, covering a slip, insurance, haul-outs, Yanmar and saildrive service, rigging checks and sail care. Racing owners should add sail replacement on a two to four season cycle. Water ballast pumps, the hydraulic backstay and the electric transom are extra systems to maintain.

Dealer support in North America runs through Beneteau's network; the boat made its US debut in Miami, and Naos Yachts commissioned SV Lenny on the West Coast. With the model still in production, used boats trade close to new, so a two or three year old example is the main way to save.

Not the First 44.7 or the Farr First 45

Search results mix this boat with two older Beneteaus. The First 44.7 was a Farr Yacht Design racer-cruiser built from 2004 to 2007, a lighter 44 ft 10 in boat with one rudder and a three-rig menu up to carbon with rod rigging. The Farr First 45 followed in 2008. Both are excellent used buys at a fraction of the price, but they are different hulls with different interiors, and their specs and values should never be read across to the 2022 boat.