The expression ‘go for broke’ took on a new meaning for the team. This drive propelled Benj through the
next cycle and eventual success, winning silver in the Pan Am Games in 1983 and silver at the LA Olympics with new crew Chris Steinfeld. ‘By now we had a lot of experience behind us, but it was still not at all easy, either at the trials or in the Games,’ Benj said. ‘Dave Ullman and Pete Melvin were pushing hard in the trials and I think this really helped us get better prepared for the Games, where we were fast. ‘If it had not been for the OCS in Race 5
I think we could have won gold. Nonethe- less, Luiz [Doreste] and Roberto [Molena] sailed well and he and his crew deserved the gold medal.’ During training for the 1984 Olympic
cycle Benj recognised that there were now growing opportunities in the offshore big boat scene. Through contacts with his 470 rival Dave Ullman, whose loft Ullman Sails in Newport Beach, California was starting to expand into bigger boats, Benj was asked to join some of the high-profile projects run by Ullman customers. These included Bill Palmer’s Holland 40 Shenan- doah, chosen for the US Admiral’s Cup team of 1983. The following year Benj was asked to helm another Ullman customer’s boat representing the US in that year’s Sardinia Cup: the Alan Andrews-designed One-Tonner Allegiance. The following year it was Bob Towse’s Blue Yankee, the start of a long and successful relationship that will be discussed further in Part II. But this new interest in big boats was
about more than diversifying his skill set: Olympic campaigns in these days relied on support from friends and family, and ISP was not making him rich, so Benj needed to use his connections to work as a sales rep for sails on the big boat scene, first
38 SEAHORSE
Above: front cover of the first ISP catalogue – Benjamin for ever regretted that the shot had been taken too soon after the bottom mark before the vang and cunningham were pulled on. The remarkable 1984 US Olympic sailing team (top) which won medals in every class. Benjamin is front row third left and looking understandably modest in a group including Rod Davis, Robbie Haines, John Bertrand, Paul Cayard, Carl and Bill Buchan, Jonathan McKee, Tom Linskey, Steve Erickson, Gary Knapp… and on and on
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