Designed by Jean Marie Finot for Beneteau, the first production First Class 10 rolled of the line in 1982 and a 114 hulls later in 1987 it was all over. This is the big sister of the First Class 8 which is still used by youth teams in the UK and were seen racing outside of Excel during the last Boat Show.

The boat was delivered in 1984 to Peter Vincent, the first owner who named her 'Second Injection'.

In 1987 Rob Davies took ownership and raced her as 'Roxy IV' out of Cardiff through until 1989. Peter won many races locally and 'Roxy IV' still holds the Cardiff Yacht Club record from Cork to Milford Haven (Roches Point Lighthouse to Neyland in 14 hours). Peter is now up to Roxy 11 which is a J133.

After Rob came ownership by Brian Harries, Doug Turner and his brother who were responsible for renaming her Barda, and who continued to race her out of Cardiff.
 
The next owner was Bryan Aukett who campaigned Barda out of Brighton and made something of a name for himself and his family crew both at Beneteau Cup events and also Royal Escape racing. Bryan had Barda for over 10 years before moving on to a new Beneteau, selling Barda to me in late 2006.

There is still some debate about the meaning of the name 'Barda' and I'm hoping to get in touch with Brian Harries or Doug Turner who should be able to shed some light on the name. We have been told that the literal translation of 'Barda' from Turkish is 'at the bar', so I guess we'll be sticking with it for now, though the new 'Benequick' logo will go on soon!

Dimensions
Length overall - 10.40m
Waterline length - 9.85m
Beam - 2.98m
Draft - 1.80m
Displacement - 3,100 kg
Rig - Fractional(7/8) with 2 aft swept
spreaders and backstays/checkstays.
Keel - Cast Iron 1,000 kg
Fenders - A mixed bunch but no tyres

Barda appears to be pretty much stock as far as layout goes, although Bryan Aukett fitted an updated rudder and removed the small skeg.

Handicapping

Barda's 2009 IRC TCC is 0.988 which puts us slightly in front of a stock J92 and behind a J92s (we must have gained a little age allowance as the 2007/2008 TCC was 0.989).

You can download a 432k PDF copy of our 2009 IRC certificate by clicking here >>

When it comes to the Portsmouth Yardstick the local handicap committee send to adjust for crew skill which does us no favours - current club handicap is 845 which is a hard number to sail to.