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Review of First Class Challenge


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The First Class Challenge is a sailboat designed by the French maritime architect Jean-Marie Finot in the early nineties.

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Hull
The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Rig
The boat equipped with a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a genaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

Keel

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.27 - 1.37 meter (4.17 - 4.47 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.


Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for First Class Challenge is about 198 kg/cm, alternatively 1113 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 198 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1113 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.


Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for First Class Challenge is 2.81.

Slim Wide 79% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 79% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.


Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail for fractional rig.

mainsail specifications headsail specifications

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale



If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.



Guiding dimensions of running rig
UsageLengthDiameter
Mainsail halyard 29.3 m(96.0 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard29.3 m(96.0 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker halyard29.3 m(96.0 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Jib sheet 9.1 m(30.0 feet)12 mm(1/2 inch)
Genoa sheet9.1 m(30.0 feet)12 mm(1/2 inch)
Mainsheet 22.8 m(74.9 feet)12 mm(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker sheet20.1 m(65.9 feet)12 mm(1/2 inch)
Cunningham3.9 m(12.6 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Kickingstrap7.7 m(25.3 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Clew-outhaul7.7 m(25.3 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what to look for.



Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for First Class Challenge it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.



References