INTERVIEW WITH J-22 CHAMPION BENZ FAGET
Well, we finally pinned down Benz Faget to talk about his big win at the 2002 J-22 Mid-Winters held here in New Orleans last weekend. For that one person out there that may not know of Benz, he has won 2 US Sailing Mens Championships, J-24 Worlds (as Crew), 7 Ensign North American Championships (a couple were as crew), several Lipton races, Challenge Cup regatta’s and a just few Wednesday night races as well. Here’s how it went:
NOYC.org: Congrats on your big win at the 2002 J-22 Class Mid-Winters, how did you do it?
Faget: We have a good boat, great crew work, fast sails and went the right way most of the time.
NOYC.org: Tell me about your crew.
Faget: I sailed with David Zahn, Rob Rogers & Willum Lamar. I’ve raced with Rob on 24’s and David on Scots, but we never had all sailed together before on J-22’s until just recently. Our original fourth crew came in over her target weight and we were fortunate enough to pick up 13 year old Willum Lamar at registration.
NOYC.org: What were their jobs?
Faget: Dave did the middle/pit…and he got an ear-full…but he really did excel and improved with every race. Rob did foredeck and was flawless as usual. Willum was a great find, he filled in the gaps and was a pleasure to have on board. They were great, I’d take them all to Worlds if they would come.
NOYC.org: Who did tactics and what was your overall game plan?
Faget: I like to call tactics my self, but I get plenty of input from the crew. They were great at letting me know what they saw up the course and making sure that I have lanes open to go if needed. We sailed really flat and found ourselves footing and pressing on it pretty hard in the light stuff. We ran into trouble when we set up on anyone’s windward hip….every time we did this, we found that the leeward boats would start sticking it, or pinching and we would be forced to parallel their course and this would really slow us down. After we figured this out, we tried to stay bow-out and to leeward when ever possible.
NOYC.org: What type of sails and mast step did you use… how did you set up your rig?
Faget: We used the North Big Foot Jib, an FR-1 (Full Radial) chute and 4 year old SC-2 main sail that came with the boat. Our boat has the flat mast step and I set up the shrouds so that the leeward uppers were just slack and the lowers were dangling when sailing on the wind. I made sure the mast was in column before we left the dock. I like a little sag in the middle of the mast. Really,…we left the rig alone accept for the first race on Saturday where we snugged it up a bit when the breeze was on.
NOYC.org: You were sailing at close to max. weight 605 lbs. …how did you achieve such great boat speed in the light stuff?
Faget: Rob and Willum went below and sat against the bulk heads. Our light air speed was good but we found ourselves going the right way more often than not.
NOYC.org: How did you start and at which ends?
Faget: We started mostly at the favored end or the side that we wanted to head to on the first beat. We had good starts except for the third race where we finished in the low 20’s.
NOYC.org: What happened in the third Race, I saw that you were back in the high forties at the the first mark and you ground your way back to the 20’s.
Faget: We were approaching the middle of the line on port tack with about fifty seconds to go looking for a hole. A leeward port tack boat that I was overlapped with and next to threw the helm over and screamed tacking. She then drove over me and pushed me back to a third row start in very light winds. We rounded the top mark deep. We caught boats by looking for breeze and trying to make big gains on clumps of boats at a time. It ended up being our throw out.
NOYC.org: Any other problems you ran into that you care to share with us?
Faget: We had a problem in the first race also. At the top mark during the second beat we came in at the two boat length circle and lee bowed a boat that was reaching in on starboard. The starboard tacker did a little sissy luff to try an indicate that we fouled him. It was clean, and I later found out that I would have had a pretty good witness (on the mark set boat). But since you can’t chuck a DSQ and it’s a hard protest to win, we did a 720. It was a horrible 720 we had to take the chute down, do our spins and then reset. We lost about 13 boats but were able to catch a few of them back.
NOYC.org: One of the problems I heard discussed was,…how difficult it was to pick the favored mark to round at the leeward gate. How did you decide?
Faget: That’s a good question, here is a sure fire method as long as you have a few boats ahead of you: Watch the boats that round ahead of you. Look at their angles and see which boat is pointing more towards you. When you identify which one is pointing more towards you… then go to the mark that they didn’t round. Make any sense?…. If a boat is pointing more up wind towards you… then go to the other mark and it should be favored. After rounding… make sure you get out the way of the bad air of the chutes coming downwind…don’t be in a hurry to tack.
NOYC.org: Have you picked up any sponsors for the 2002 J-22 Worlds that will be held in Corpus…maybe Jenny Craig, Slim Fast, Boudreaux’s Butt Paste or Viagra?
Faget: I’d be happy to plaster their names all over my boat and sails if they would help out…but I hav’nt called those you mentioned yet. I am working on a few though…so we’ll see.
NOYC.org: I know that ya’ll were close to making weight. Is it true that David held you down and Rob shaved 4 lbs. of hair off of your back?
Faget: no, but they were talking about it.
NOYC.org: Now that your so slim, will you where a bikini like Rudy’s?
Faget: I like to cover up… I’ll stick with my boxer style swim trunks.
NOYC.org: If you had to buy sails from someone other than NORTH ONE-DESIGN what kind would they be?
Faget: I’d make them myself.
NOYC.org: I’ve sailed with you about a half dozen times over the years and I am always amazed at how talented, fluid, instinctive, natural and seat of the pants you are. Is their anyone that helped mentor you along the way or taught you these skills?
Faget: I’ve gotten a lot of help and mentoring. My dad “Doc†Faget, Gene Walet, Buddy Friedrichs and O.J Young probably influenced my sailing the most. I learn from anyone that is sailing fast. If some one is going faster than me I look to see what they are doing…if I can’t see it,…I try and talk to them after the race. I learned a lot on the J-24 Texas Circuit in the late 80’s and early 90’s,…and from people like Marc Hullman and Jim Brady. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I’ve learned a lot from several different people and still have more to learn.
NOYC.org: Who do you consider the top 5 non-industry sailors in the GYA?
Faget: Tough question…I’d have to say that the GYA produces several good sailors…or I’ve been whipped by several. It’s just too tough to limit it to just five.
NOYC.org: What do you consider your biggest sailing accomplishment?
Faget: Another tough one, off the top of my head… I think of races at Mallory’s, Key West and some Na’s, but I just like racing sailboats. This past weekend is a perfect example,…we did win…but we finished every where and sailed in every part of the fleet. I don’t have to be wining to be enjoying racing…I just like sailing and look more forward to future accomplishments and more racing.
NOYC.org: What is your dream boat?
Faget: Lets see…unlimited budget?…A big Nauter Swan that I could cruise around the world on.
NOYC.org: Thanks for making time for NOYC.org any closing comments?
Faget: The web team is doing a great job…my computer has crashed and I’ve been with out the last two weeks, I look forward to checking this out. I’d like to also thank Dave, Rob and Willum again and SYC for running a great mid-winters.
– steinkamp
