Rare bird - A Beneteau First 260 resource

November can be hit or miss in Minnesota. While we go as often as we can until the water freezes, often it is in winter sailing gear. Not so this year, where all four Shackleton Cup weekends were delightful, and 3 of them were warm enough to wear shorts. One of the warm ones featured an all-girl BlueJ crew. We had a blast, and ate and drank like kings. And queens. Here we are rolling a Santana 2023R under spinnaker in 15 knots. And it was not just the weekends, the next week Wednesday looked great so Dan and I took off a day of work and went sailing. My iPhone thought that was so cool that it made a movie out of the adventure. The last Shackleton was cooler (34F) and VERY foggy at the start. Only three boats ventured over to Maynards for the event. We had to use our compass and nav apps to get our of Wayzata Bay and into the open lake, where the visibility improved. On the way back we drag-raced an S2 7.9 on a tight reach back to Wayzata Bay. We were in a hurry an...

Depending on the build year and the market, the First 260 often came with a single light at the mast top, most typically a red/green/white navigation light. Designed for offshore/coastal use, the fixture placed the light source high where it was easily seen. The single light has its disadvantage however, the primary one being that there is no provision for an anchor light. You CAN replace the fixture to a stacked nav/anchor light, but beyond that being expensive, you still need to run another set of 12v wires to the top of the mast, and add a switch to your DC panel to control it. So most boats stayed rigged in the original manner. A later option was a LED replacement fixture from NASA Marine in the UK. Called the Combi-LED, this light had the innovative ability to be controlled by ONE 12V wire pair, meaning no new wires to be pulled. It did this by reversing polarity to get anchor light, and came with a small switch to add to your panel to control this. I looked at doing this for ...

Back in 2009, during the height of the worldwide financial crisis, Conq/Finot penned this 27 footer in the image of the First 260. Designed to much of the design brief of the 260, it incorporated a carbon rig, electric auxiliary, and asymmetric kites. Rumor had it that this was a Beneteau proposal that never saw the light of day. While it is not clear if that was true or not, it would have competed with the well selling First 27.7. The resemblance to the 260 is very clear, and even more so to the updated First 25, which moves the mainsheet/traveler to the transom, utilizes a fathead main without a backstay, and has a spreaderless mast. The boat was called La Mouette , which is French for 'seagull'. Roughly translated, the designers words on the boat were: The experiences of the Vendée Globe IMOCA 60 and the adaptation to new energy, recycling of materials and the moderation of the size of the sailing necessities by the crisis, lead us to imagine a concept boat that will ...

After a 13-DNC in the first race, and an abandoned 2nd race that makes the DNC non-discardable, we were playing for pride in the 3rd Commodore Cup. Thankfully the breeze showed up, straight out of the SW that promised a 4 mile long beat out of Wayzata Bay to Excelsior. It was choppy, shifty and 12-18 knots breezy, which put a premium on boat handling and tactics. Due to good crew work we managed to stay close to our flat-water polars in the chop. Half way up the beat we were still trading crosses with a well-sailed Merit 25 which owes us lots of time. And in touch with the much faster lead boats, a J/27 and a Soling 27. We round the windward mark and after a short jib-reach over the top of Big Island, we set the kite and run for home, running through gibes 7 times to stay on our angles and stay in best pressure. After 9 miles of sailing, we cross the finish to take the win! Sadly the DNC in the first race blows our Cup chances, but will show up next weekend to show t...

As we race a lot of windward/leeward races, the efficiency of the pit is of primary importance. While generally well thought out in the original design and hardware assortment, there was a number of things I wanted to do to make it better. And as we often sail with asyms, it needs to support that as well. Some of the goals were: Double end key controls (vang, foreguy) so they can be played from either side Increase the purchase for key controls (vang, foreguy, outhaul, cunningham) Run halyards for optimal port windward roundings Create the same pit environment as the First 36.7 (cross-training boat) Bring the cunningham into the pit Double ending the vang and pole down means 4 and not 2 line controllers, as well as deck turns. This means 2 extra clutches and deck organizers, as well as moving the furling line. The starboard side looks like this; from the inside out: Vang Reef Spinnaker topping lift Main Halyard Spin Halyard Genoa sheet Genoa car adjuster Spinnaker for...

Due to a deal I had with my sailmaker, I took the opportunity to update the mainsail on BlueJ. Cut from the same pattern as our old sail, it is made out of Challenger ZZ19 Twarlon string laminate. Solid black unless light shines through it. it has amazing shape, looks fast, and IS FAST. Great deal. The day for the brake-in sail started out too gusty for a new sail, but by the time we got out it was 10-12; perfect for checking it out. Dan and I had a great sail, and Tonka Paparazzi was out and got the first pictures. Sailing and chilling. Blackness.

Wow, where has this year gone? BlueJ has had quite a good year racing at WYC, with a long string of  race wins and podiums to our credit. Most impressive for us has been our 2nd place in the Sunset series, which is the premier season-long tally for the Thursday evening races. We have also settled in with racing with a crew of 4 (bow/trim, pit, main, driver), two who are new to the boat and new to racing. The Bay series is more of a fun race for us; with the weeds we cannot avoid or shed, we shuck if its light. And this year every race was. But we still have fun, like drag racing with J-24s downwind. The Fall is coming up, which promises more wind and less weeds. Its our best season.