BENETEAU First 18 - 1. Preparations; Rigging Tools & Equipment; Ronstan Deck-Equipment Installation

1. PREPARATIONS
Initial assembly of First 18 in the standard configuration in a team of two persons will take you at
around 4 hours. All consecutive assemblies are considerably quicker and should after some practice
take you 3060 minutes.
First, find yourself a flat and smooth place; ideally, you would do it on the grass. In case you are
assembling the boat on the concrete of asphalt, we strongly recommend the use of protective
materials for the equipment, especially for the rigging of the laminate sails, which could quickly get
damaged.
Before unpacking of the boat and equipment, position the boat in a way that you have at least 5 m of
free space behind the boat for stepping the mast.
Warning: Before assembly make sure, that the way to the launching slip or crane is free of any
overhead power lines, trees or other obstacles or they are higher than 9 m, which is the air-draft of
Beneteau First 18 on the trailer. These obstacles can damage your boat and are potentially dangerous
to yourselves! Remember that carbon fibre is an electric conductor.
Rigging tools & equipment
The boat comes equipped with basic tools you need for the assembly: open spanners for the shrouds
sizes 6 mm, 12 mm and 13 mm and 6 mm Allen key for gooseneck axe.
Besides, you need some extra tools:
- multitool (or pliers, knife and flat screwdriver),
- lighter (or even better gas torch),
- (black or grey) electrical tape
Recommended materials:
- marine grease
- Teflon ballbearing conditioner
- Teflon lubricant in a spray
- Two wooden supports for rigging of the mast.
Ronstan deck-equipment
Fitting of Ronstan Orbit Blocks™ with Dyneema® Links
ATTACHMENT AT 90° (PARARELL DYNEEMA LINK)