Beneteau 50

The Beneteau 50 is a French sailboat that was designed by Bruce Farr, with the interior by Armel Briand, as a cruiser and first built in 1995. For the yacht charter market it was sold as the Stardust 505 and for Moorings Yacht Charter as the Moorings 503, Moorings 504 and Moorings 505, depending on the interior arrangements.

Production
The design was built by Beneteau in France, from 1995 until 2004, with 200 boats built, but it is now out of production.

Design
The Beneteau 50 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of glassfibre, with wood trim. The hull is solid fibreglass and the deck is balsa-cored. It has a masthead sloop rig, with two sets of swept spreaders and aluminium spars with stainless steel wire standing rigging. The hull has a raked stem, a walk-through reverse transom with a swimming platform, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by dual wheels and a fixed fin keel with weighted bulb or optional shoal draft keel. It displaces 28660 lb and carries 9315 lb of cast iron ballast.

Standard and tall masts were factory options.

The boat has a draft of 7.55 ft with the standard keel and 5.92 ft with the optional shoal draft keel.

The boat is fitted with a Swedish Volvo Penta 80 hp for docking and manoeuvring. The fuel tank holds 132 u.s.gal and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 264 u.s.gal.

The design was built with a number of interior layouts, with three to five cabins and sleeping accommodation for six to ten people. The preferred charter boat interior has crew quarters with two bunk beds in the bow, two forward cabins, each with a double berth, a U-shaped settee and a straight settee in the main salon and two aft cabins each with a double berth. The galley is located on the starboard side of the main salon. The galley is of straight configuration and is equipped with a four-burner stove, a refrigerator, freezer and a double sink. A navigation station is opposite the galley, on the port side. There are five heads, one for each cabin.

The design has a hull speed of 9.03 kn and a PHRF handicap of 57 to 90.

Operational history
In a 1998 review for Cruising World, Quentin Warren wrote, "our sail aboard the Beneteau 50 included a delightful romp in light-to-moderate conditions. The boat is weatherly and quick, and amazingly responsive to her deep, balanced spade rudder. There is a thoroughbred quality about her not unlike what you might find in other high-end Farr creations, one that causes her to react immediately and positively to nuances of trim, which pays back diligence at the wheel with speed and performance. Regular offshore oceangoing sailors should note that this is not a conservative boat, especially from the waterline down, but certainly she is well built, meticulously engineered and gracefully finished."