After two years in development, the First Yacht 53 with its performance hull, designed by Roberto Biscontini premieres at Cannes Boat Show, September 2019. Roberto Biscontini’s thirty years of America’s Cup experience has given the First Yacht 53 a perfectly balanced hull under sail with extremely promising performance.
This new ‘Avant-Garde’ luxury cruising yacht will meet the expectations of the most demanding sailors. The Beneteau boatyard’s and architects’ keyword has been high performance. The yacht aims for excellence in fast comfortable sailing, developed with racing yacht technology, so she’s performance ready.
“When I started to design the new First 53 I wanted to involve Rodrigo Azcueta and his company, Cape Horn Engineering. I’ve known Rodrigo for many years and I know he has a lot of experience and expertise in CFD and hydrodynamics” comments Roberto Biscontini.
We rigorously tested with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) 25 different hull designs, plus keel bulb, rudder and displacement investigations in a very wide range of wind and sea conditions. We also carried out extensive work on weight analysis, which is a very important part of the design – precisely positioning the boat’s centre of gravity, centre of effort and centre of buoyancy to achieve the desired result… a well balanced, powerful hull with high speed potential but also a good level of sailing comfort.
The hull of the First Yacht 53 was built using the infusion process for optimal control of the boat’s weight and for its excellent mechanical properties. Featuring a full plumb bow and a maximum beam further aft, the twin rudders give the perfect feed-back to control the highly responsive hull. The 2.5m or 3m draught (with lead bulb), as well as an optional carbon mast, giving the First Yacht 53 the competitive advantage.
Rodrigo Azcueta comments “Our first involvement with Roberto Biscontini began over 15 years ago whilst in preparation for the 32nd America’s Cup in Auckland. We have kept in contact over the years whilst working with BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa respectively in Valencia. More recently, we have worked together on a Wallycento racing yacht, running CFD analysis and simulations for a new rudder design. To be involved in the development of the Beneteau First 53 has been a challenging and exciting project.
We also value our long standing relationships, which demonstrate our ability to achieve and maintain very high standards. Our customers include some of the most prestigious names in the marine industry and we pride ourselves on an unrivalled level of service and commitment.’’