Beneteau First Boats For Sale

The Beneteau First 30 is a planing cruiser launched in January 2025 at the Düsseldorf boat show and named European Yacht of the Year 2026 in the performance monohull category. It sits within Beneteau's long-running First performance range and is built at the company's Slovenian yard under the Seascape operation, which Beneteau acquired in 2018. The hull comes from Sam Manard, a designer known for Class 40, IMOCA 60 and Mini Transat boats, and the concept centers on bringing fast, fun sailing to a couple, a small charter crew or weekend day-sailing. The Beneteau First 30 new starting price is set at €100,000, and demand has been strong, with close to 100 orders placed and build slots running roughly a year in advance.

Performance is the point of this Beneteau First 30 sailboat. Built to its design weight of just over 3 tonnes, it planes readily: with a spinnaker up in 15 to 20 knots of breeze and two people aboard it sits at 12 to 13 knots and has touched 13, while a masthead spinnaker in only 11 to 13 knots of true wind keeps the hull releasing and planing for long stretches. Upwind in around 10 knots it makes the early sixes, clocking 6.4 knots and pointing at 40 to 45 degrees to the true wind. Reported maximum speed across early sea trials reached around 18 knots.

Steering is by tiller, working two deep rudder blades that give a lot of control even at steep heel angles, and sturdy cockpit foot braces hold the helmsman in place. The standard boat uses a German main sheet on a bridle at a single central point to keep the cockpit clear; a racing option adds a traveler track with a German-led main sheet to each winch. The genoa sheets lead to coach-roof winches, so a second hand or autopilot helps when sailing the headsail. The rig is a bendy two-spreader Z-Spars mast with a cascade backstay system, paired with a balanced sail plan of roughly 106% genoa on a flat-deck furler, with a bowsprit available as an option for an anchor and offwind tack point.

Belowdecks the First 30 interior keeps standing headroom in the main working area. The forward cabin matches the size of the larger First 36, measuring more than 2 metres long and close to 2 metres wide, with a big hatch and a magnetic door for privacy. The saloon has a center table, a control panel housing the electrical and electronic systems, a fridge and a small chart space, plus a central sink and a double gas stove with storage for cookware sized for four. In place of heavy joinery, fabric textile lockers handle personal stowage to save weight and cost, and the head is generously sized with a wet locker, toilet, sink and a shower fed by an extendable tap with a floor drain. The cockpit table stows in a large seat locker that mirrors the volume of the aft cabin opposite.

For buyers weighing the First 30 cost against its capability, the boat carries an A4 ocean design category and ISO certification, meaning it is rated seaworthy enough to cross the Atlantic without modification. The dual cruising-and-racing nature means the main choice is between the clean standard layout and the racing main sheet package. As an affordable, certified, award-winning 30-footer, it is unusual at this price, and the same factors make it worth considering on the used market when Beneteau First 30 for sale listings appear.