Beneteau First 45 Review and Used Buying Guide

Why the Beneteau First 45 sits between two very different sisters

When buyers search for the Beneteau 45 First, they nearly always mean the Philippe Briand boat that arrived for the 2008 season, not the Bruce Farr First 45f5 of 1990. Beneteau had launched the big First 50 in 2006 as a cruiser with a racing name, and the First 34.7 was a club racer with bunks. The First 45 was pitched squarely between them. Yachting World, testing it in 2008, called it a fast cruiser and noted that Beneteau insisted it was different from both siblings even though it borrowed the 50's long coachroof, the molded eyebrows over the windows and the pale, minimalist interior.

Its US debut came at Strictly Sail Pacific in Oakland in spring 2008, and Cruising World's Mark Pillsbury summed up the brief neatly: a boat for the cruiser who relishes performance and the racer who wants both trophies and comfort. That dual personality is still the reason to buy one. Beneteau now files the model under its 2006 to 2016 First generation, and a European inventory list dated July 2013 shows the yard was still offering it five years after launch.

Hull shape, ratios and what the numbers predict

Briand drew a sharp entry, broad shoulders and a slight chine in the aft quarters, a shape Cruising World described as designed to heel to a point and then accelerate with every puff. Yachting World added that the hull was optimized for IRC, picking up waterline length as it heels. On paper it is a 46 ft 2 in boat with a 13 ft 9 in beam and a waterline of 38 ft 7 in.

Sailboatdata lists a sail area to displacement ratio of 19.7, a ballast ratio near 37 percent and a displacement to length ratio of 182. Those are honest performance cruiser numbers rather than raceboat figures, and they line up with how testers described the boat: quick and responsive, but not twitchy. Beneteau's own EC light displacement is 11,545 kg (25,445 lb), heavier than the 10,600 kg figure printed in some magazine spec boxes, so expect the real boat to sit a little deeper than the brochure ratios suggest once cruising gear is aboard.

Test sail results from San Francisco Bay and the Solent

Neither magazine got a breezy day. Cruising World sailed in 10 to 11 knots on San Francisco Bay with a flat, brand-new main and saw about 6 knots over the ground, tacking through just under 100 degrees, gaining a knot or more when cracked off to a reach. Later in the afternoon the breeze built into the high teens and the boat settled and surged with the puffs. Yachting World sailed in 9 to 12 knots dropping to about 7 and found the boat typically returned half the wind speed close-hauled, tacked through 80 degrees in the stronger breeze, and made about 6 knots under symmetric spinnaker at roughly 85 degrees.

Both testers flagged the traveler. Yachting World found small traveler adjustments changed speed by as much as half a knot, and Cruising World could fine-tune course with a tug on the traveler lines. The helm itself was described as direct with moderate feedback, and the balanced spade rudder on self-aligning bearings is responsive enough that the boat spins in about a boat length under power. Under its 54 hp Yanmar the 45 cruised at around 6.5 knots and was remarkably quiet, according to Yachting World, though the broad transom slaps uncomfortably when backing into small waves.

A crew-friendly deck with a German mainsheet

The deck is all business: flush hatches, a fold-away anchor roller, an open transom and twin wheels with a floor-mounted traveler just forward of them. The mainsheet is split and led German style forward along the boom, down to the deck and back to winches at each helm, so a lone watchkeeper can trim the main from the wheel. Harken 60 primaries sit within reach of the helms on the test boat, with halyards and control lines led to coachroof winches.

There are quirks. Yachting World thought the cockpit winches were placed for crew rather than for the helmsman, and the optional removable aft beam was useless as a seat because the lifelines pass over it. Cruising World's tester could not understand the chart plotter mounted at ankle height behind the port wheel. Many owners have since moved displays onto the binnacles or added a pod. Teak cockpit and side decks were common, which looks right on this boat but needs budgeting at 15 to 18 years old.

• Non-overlapping jib on a furler in cruising mode; genoa tracks and spinnaker gear for racing
• Optional taller regatta rig, rod rigging and carbon mast
• Liferaft locker in the cockpit sole and twin lazarettes behind the helms
• Emergency tiller and chain and cable steering to a quadrant

Owner's cabin forward, two doubles aft

Below, the 45 has one main arrangement. The owner's cabin is forward with an island double reached by steps on both sides, a hanging locker and an en suite head with a separate shower stall. Aft there are two double cabins under the cockpit, the port one slightly roomier than the starboard. A day head to port at the foot of the companionway doubles as a wet locker for crew coming off watch.

The saloon puts an L-shaped settee and an oddly shaped table to port with two bolt-down stools, a straight settee to starboard that makes a reasonable sea berth with a lee cloth, and an outboard-facing nav station whose swiveling seat also serves the dinner table. The L-shaped galley to starboard has a front-opening fridge plus a top-loading icebox, and the nav station sits behind a wall of joinery that splits the saloon. Headroom runs from about 6 ft 4 in to 6 ft 6 in. Yachting World called the pale, minimalist styling a love-it-or-hate-it choice, and the soft PVC hanging lockers in the aft cabins look shabby next to the rest of the joinery.

How Beneteau built it

Cruising World reported a solid glass hull laid up with biaxial and unidirectional fabrics, plus a structural inner liner bonded and glassed in that carries keel, mast and chainplate loads. Bulkheads are bonded all the way around to hull and deck. The deck is an infused balsa sandwich with solid glass under hardware, and the hull to deck joint uses mechanical fasteners and polyurethane adhesive. The keel-stepped mast lands on the liner.

That liner approach is efficient and stiff when new, but it is also why a hard grounding deserves careful survey. Any sign of cracking or separation at the liner around the keel bolts is a reason to pull the boat and inspect, and insurers increasingly ask for a keel bolt report on liner-built performance boats of this era.

Running a 46 ft performance cruiser

The 53 gallon fuel tank and 151 gallon fresh water capacity (Beneteau's figures) suit coastal cruising and island hopping rather than long ocean passages without a watermaker. The Yanmar saildrive is easy to service but its bellows seal has a fixed replacement interval, and many First 45s are now on their first or second. Sail costs dominate the budget for anyone who races: a laminate main and jib for this rig easily run to five figures.

Expect roughly $16,000 to $32,000 a year in the US for slip, insurance, haul-out, bottom paint, engine service and routine rigging, excluding sails and depreciation. Owners who race should add a sail replacement cycle on top.

Finding a good one on the brokerage market

The First 45 was never a volume seller in the US, so the pool of boats is thin and many listings are in France, the UK and the Mediterranean. Prices hold reasonably well because the shape still looks contemporary and because racing owners value the deep keel and carbon rig options. Compare carefully against the newer First 44 if your budget stretches, and against the older First 47.7 if you want more interior volume for less money.

When you inspect, ask for the build sheet. The same hull could leave the factory as a shallow-keel cruiser with an aluminum mast or as a deep-keel, rod-rigged regatta boat, and those two boats belong in different price brackets.