by Mark Pillsbury
The Beneteau First Yacht 53 is designed and built to get you there in a hurry—and you’ll be stylin’ all the way.
A freshening breeze, building from near calm to the midteens, brought perfect conditions for a morning sail on the new Beneteau First Yacht 53. With sails up, our speed over the ground effortlessly matched that of the light breeze, and when things got puffy out on Chesapeake Bay a bit later, well, we went soaring.
Standing atop an angled fold-up helmsmen perch at the starboard wheel, with the lee rail close to buried and the windward rudder completely out of the water, I had the otherworldly feeling of flying across the water, and it was absolutely a thrill. Think high-end sports car winding through the gears on a twisting mountain road, and, well, you get the idea: Power on and knuckles white, but it was a ride you’d not want to miss.
