Beneteau First 10 R Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Beneteau First 10 R means chasing a Farr-designed 33-foot racer that punched above its size from the moment it appeared. Built at Beneteau's Marion, South Carolina plant and sold as a focused club racer with one-design roots rather than a soft cruiser, the 10 R was the first sprit boat Beneteau offered to North America and remains a serious racer-cruiser.
Layouts on the Used Market
The 10 R's interior follows a head-forward plan that keeps the aft berths well forward of the stern. A centerline head in the forepeak doubles as a spinnaker-retrieval space with a large half-moon hatch and a drained sole, while the carbon pole stows in a sealed sheath. Amidships you get a portside L-shaped galley across from a forward-facing nav station, both at max beam. Aft, a double sits to starboard and a single to port. The cockpit is built around a 63-inch leather-covered aluminum wheel with three-quarters of a turn lock-to-lock, an open transom, and low coamings; testers found it roomy for a helmsman, main trimmer, two headsail trimmers, and a pitman, though the traveler and wheel chop off the after three feet.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Spinnakers are commonly fitted, with both asymmetric and conventional chutes part of the boat's race DNA. Beyond that, buyers should expect less standardization: electric winches, bimini, dodger, AIS, autopilot, and chartplotter show up as occasional or owner-added items rather than factory defaults. For a racer-cruiser, the meaningful clusters are sail-handling power — the standard Lewmar 46 and 40 winches are often supplemented by electric upgrades for short-handed crews — and navigation, where an added chartplotter or AIS reflects how the boat has been used since new. Canvas such as a bimini or dodger is a comfort add for the occasional cruise, not a race necessity.
What to Inspect
The T-keel's high-aspect shape is known to snag lobster and crab traps and kelp, so check the strut-and-bulb for impact or grounding damage anchor. The bilge is divided into four self-contained bins with no central sump and no limber holes, and after heavy rain the inspection revealed several inches of water standing in three of them anchor. Confirm the mainsheet is reachable from the wheel — the driver has limited access as delivered. Early production boats carried a high toerail that made hiking painful; later builds corrected this, so verify which you are looking at. The cabin trunk pushes genoa tracks outboard, requiring jib inhaulers for proper trim.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats turn up in the United States and Canada. For a buyer, the checklist is short and structural: inspect the T-keel for snags or distortion; lift the sole and check all four bilge bins for standing water; confirm toerail height by build era; verify mainsheet access from the helm; and confirm the headsail inhaulers and furler belowdecks are intact. A clean 10 R rewards a racing-minded owner with a light, quick Farr hull and a genuinely usable interior.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Beneteau First 10 R. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 8 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 25 | 1 | $145,000 | — |
| Sep 25 | 2 | $121,282 | -16.4% |
| Oct 25 | 2 | $89,998 | -25.8% |
| Jan 26 | 2 | $79,000 | -12.2% |
| Apr 26 | 3 | $75,000 | -5.1% |
| May 26 | 1 | $75,000 | 0.0% |
| Jul 26 | 2 | $70,000 | -6.7% |
| Aug 26 | 2 | $95,624 | +36.6% |
Where they're listed
Beneteau First 10 R listings appear across 2 countries. United States has the most listings with 11 (78.6%), followed by Canada.
Country view
14 listings · 2 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $79,000 | 11 | 3 | 78.6% |
| Canada | $107,569 | 3 | 1 | 21.4% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
10 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beneteau, USA Marion First 36.7 | 35.76' | $ 74,898 | 88 | 10 |
| Beneteau First 40 | 40.16' | $ 99,000 | 72 | 7 |
| Franchi First 31.7 | 31.53' | $ 52,602 | 68 | 18 |
| Beneteau First 35 | 35.17' | $ 68,749 | 52 | 14 |
| Beneteau First 30 (Mauric) | 29.36' | $ 79,758 | 44 | 12 |
| diseño Finot First 310 | 31' | $ 30,883 | 36 | 12 |
| Beneteau First 36 | 39.33' | $ 380,386 | 27 | 3 |
| Beneteau 34.7 | 33.66' | $ 86,321 | 16 | 4 |
| Beneteau First 10 RYou are here | — | $ 79,000 | 14 | 4 |
| Ovington 30 | 30.9' | $ 37,632 | 14 | 2 |
