Beneteau First 211 Doublehander

Author's product rating:   

Level of Experience needed	Intermediate
Quality	Excellent

Advantages:	fun, fast, great in light winds, well designed
Disadvantages:	light, can be expensive, manoevrability with outboard

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We never thought we would ever be able to afford the move from a Laser to a larger craft. However, after our honeymoon and a rose tinted wander around a marina, our bank were crazy enough to agree to a loan for a yacht.

To be quite honest, we have never looked back! Our Beneteau First 211 was just over a year old when we bought her. She was fitted out with many accessories e.g. spinnaker and pole, teak rails, yacht club upholstery. She is a beautiful boat with a spacious cockpit, well designed cabin (4 berths (1 double, 2 singles), small sink (no running water), small gas cylinder stove, cabin toilet under double bunk). Mainsail and furling genoa, tiller rather than wheel.

She has an outboard rather than an inboard and our outboard was fitted badly in that it was too low on the bracket and therefore was very difficult to use to manoeuvre and also got swamped very quickly. The outboard is now higher on the bracket and much easier to use. As the boat is very light (only approx 1 tonne), she gets blown around quite a bit and can be very difficult to manoeuvre on the outboard in strong winds, especially at low revs. Takes a bit of practice but we are now much more confident.

Sailing wise, she is amazing. She handles very much like a dinghy and is very responsive. She goes very well in light winds and we find ourselves zooming past many bigger boats. We have had her up to 9.5 knots without the spinnaker and considerably more with the spinnaker. Being so light, she (or rather we!) can struggle in stronger winds and we don't take her out in more than a force 6. We have not done any channel crossings and so far have only day sailed. However, the previous owner did several channel crossings in her and really enjoyed them, so it is something we are considering.

She has a lifting keel and therefore can be a trailer sailer. However, although considerably more expensive, we have ours berthed in a marina. Working full time, we get so few chances to sail, we would prefer not to have the extra hassle of rigging her and launching her each time we want to sail.

We have had a couple of problems with her. One time was when we were preparing for lift-out. We had wound up the keel in preparation for lift-out when suddenly there was an almighty crash and the boat suddenly came to life, bouncing about like a banshee. It turned out that the keel lifting mechanism had failed and the keel had dropped back to its downward position. We thought initially that it was a mechanical failure. However, on further inspection, it turned out that the lifting mechanism had been exposed to the water and had corroded and thus failed. This apparently was a design fault which has now been rectified in that the lifting mechanism is now protected from the water. Might be worth checking out if you are considering one.

Other problem occurred with a helping hand from nature! She had been lifted out and was on blocks awaiting anti-fouling. A high wind blew up (this was September) and the marina staff were doing checks at about 4am in the morning. As they came near the hard standing, our 211 got caught by a gust of wind, reared up and then gracefully crashed off the blocks onto her side. (One of the issues when you only weigh 1 tonne!). Luckily, she was only scratched and had no internal damage but was a shock, especially when the keel lifting mechanism had only given way 1 week beforehand!

Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this little boat. I am afraid I don't have much to compare her with, this being our first larger craft, but she has been perfect for us - very responsive handling, great fun, hard work (especially in strong winds!). She is well worth the money and if you are thinking about it, I would recommend going for it - after all, life is far too short!