Beneteau First 305

The Beneteau First 305 is a French sailboat that was designed by Jean Berret as a cruiser-racer and first built in 1984.

Production
The design was built by Beneteau in France, and also in Marion, South Carolina, United States, starting in 1984 as a 1985 model year and was built until 1989, with 644 boats completed.

Design
The First 305 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 a deck-stepped mast, two sets of unswept spreaders and aluminium spars with continuous stainless steel wire standing rigging. The hull has a raked stem, a reverse transom, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed fin keel or optional shoal draft keel. It displaces 7939 lb empty and carries 2976 lb of cast iron ballast.

The boat has a draft of 5.58 ft with the standard keel and 4.33 ft with the optional shoal draft keel.

A version was also built with stub keel, daggerboard and twin rudders, for anchorages that dry out.

The boat is fitted with a Swedish Volvo 2002 diesel engine for docking and manoeuvring. The fuel tank holds 9 u.s.gal and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 30 u.s.gal.

The design has sleeping accommodation for four people, with a double "V"-berth berth in the bow cabin, an L-shaped settee and a straight settee in the main salon and an aft cabin with a double berth on the port side. The galley is located on the port side just forward of the companionway ladder. The galley is L-shaped and is equipped with a two-burner stove, an ice box and a double sink. A navigation station is opposite the galley, on the starboard side. The head is located aft, on the starboard side and includes a shower. Cabin maximum headroom is 70 in.

For sailing downwind the design may be equipped with a symmetrical spinnaker of 759 sqft.

The design has a hull speed of 6.87 kn and a PHRF handicap of 159.