Southern Charm

There aren’t many human resources directors who spend their week mitigating risk and the weekend running a 100-mph catamaran.

Welcome to the life of Scott Favre who is a corporate guy by day and an avid boater and outdoorsman outside of the office.

“He’s very low-key, you probably wouldn’t know probably their financial success just hanging out with him,” said friend Steven Martin. “He’s just a typical, normal guy.”

Favre is a minority owner, and oversees human resources and risk management for Performance Contractors Inc., a Louisiana-based firm that builds and maintains major chemical and refinery plants. The private company, co-founded by his father Art in 1979, has annual revenues of $1.4 billion.

In addition to running HR and risk management for Performance Contractors, the 46-year-old Favre oversees the video department, which includes flying drones, producing safety videos and quarterly news reports for the company’s nearly 9,000 employees.

Performance boaters will likely recognize Favre, who owns a 44 MTI catamaran and is a fixture at poker runs from Louisiana to Florida. Whether going fast or fishing, Favre takes every opportunity to get out on the water.

Growing up in Bouton Rouge, Louisiana, Favre was an active hunter and bass fisherman. It was running bass boats that he developed a love for speed. Among the bass boats was an Allison that ran nearly 100 mph.

“I’ve always liked fast boats and as I got older, I decided to make a change into some bigger, faster boats,” he said.

Favre’s first high-performance boat was a 30-foot Liberator catamaran and within two years he upgraded to a 38-foot Fountain Lightning with twin Mercury Racing HP700 SCi engines. The boat had a 110-mph top speed with a sizable crowd onboard.

“I wanted something that could carry six people with a little more comfort,” Favre said about moving from a catamaran to a V-bottom. “I wanted a cabin, I don’t know why, but it felt like a good option to have.”

In 2015, Favre jumped out of the Fountain and into new Cigarette Racing 42X with 1,110-hp engines from Mercury Racing. Favre loved everything about the boat from the fit and finish to the handling. He put a 130 hours on the Cigarette before selling it

“I never had any issues with it, it always did everything perfect,” he said. “It was a very top-quality built boat.”

Wanting to go even faster but still have a cabin, Favre moved to a Outerlimits 50SV with twin 1,350-hp engines. “I was still in that faster mode,” he said. “I just wanted a V-bottom and I did not want a catamaran.”

Favre liked the 120-mph boat but its 50-foot length presented some challenges launching it in the Baton Rouge area. Favre had MYCO Trailers build a new aluminum trailer, that was higher off the ground.

“The length on that boat was, down where we are, I could only launch it at like one boat launch and it just made things a little bit more difficult,” Favre said. 

Running a V-bottom boat in the low triple digits is challenging and after talking with Brett Manire, co-owner and general manager of Performance Boat Center, Favre was open to going back to a catamaran.

“I wanted to be able to cruise at 90 to 110 mph and not have to drive the boat, you know, and run the boat as hard as you would have to run say the Cigarette at the top end,” Favre said.

Manire steered Favre to a 44 MTI with twin Mercury Racing 1,100-hp engines and was glad he made the move. Asked why he went with sterndrives rather than outboards for the 44-foot catamaran, Favre said it’s the old-school boater in him. He’s not opposed to outboards, noting that he owns a 32 Sunsation with outboard power.

“I just like the inboard power. I like the sound. I guess it’s just the old school mentality,” Favre said. “The new outboard cats are unreal. I’ve ridden in a few of them, driven a few of them. They’re fantastic boats.”

When running the MTI, Favre brings along a group of friends to spend time on the water. Favre does the driving and throttling, which is good for friend Steven Martin.

“He’s one of those people who has always been hands-on and we’re all fine with that,” Martin said. “And I think for him, it really helps having a couple of people that know boats to kind of help him handle these bigger boats.”

Favre runs his boats on the home waters in Louisiana and is active in Florida Powerboat Club events, citing the Miami to Key West Poker Run as one of his favorites. He helped stage a poker run out of Orange Beach, Ala., for the club in 2019. Favre had a connection at The Wharf, a giant shopping, dining and entertainment district. His father owns it.

The Orange Beach poker run was a great bash in May, returning after a one-year hiatus because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Favre is a fan of Lake of the Ozarks, attending the poker run the week before the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and the event itself. Favre flies in to meet his boat at the lake, rather than doing the grueling 11-hour drive. He visited Lake of Ozarks at least six times a year.

“I haven’t met anybody up there that I don’t like, everybody’s got the kind of same mentality and they all like doing the same thing,” Favre said. “To me, it’s just like a big group of like-minded people having fun in a beautiful place.”

Favre runs five or six poker runs a year including the nearby Tickfaw 200 Poker run.

When Favre isn’t going fast, he’s chasing his other passions—fishing and hunting. His father has 92-foot Viking, which they use to compete in marlin tournaments. The family fishes all the big tournaments on the Gulf Coast, including the Blue Marlin Grand Championship. The last big tournament takes place out of the family’s The Wharf entertainment center.

The tournaments pay some eye-popping prize money and the biggest payday the Favre family hooked was a $350,000 first prize.

In the winter during hunting season, Favre is at the family lodge in Natchez, Mississippi. The family usually hosts a big group there every weekend to entertain friends.

“Once the weather starts turning about where it is now, he’ll pretty much disappear up there pretty regular,” Martin said. “As much as he loves powerboating, probably his biggest passion is being up there in the woods deer hunting and being on the land.”

Favre’s two children Brandon, 17, and Elizabeth, 13, do some boating with their father but are busy with school activities. Brandon plays football and Elizabeth is on the school’s dance team and does school plays.

As the interview was wrapping up, Favre was asked if he has any relation to the Hall of Fame quarterback that won a Super Bowl for the Green Bay Packers. While Brett Favre is a very distant relative of their family, Scott Favre shares the same name as the retired quarterback’s older brother, who has a colorful past.

Favre learned about those legal troubles with the law while boating a few years ago on the Jordan River in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, near where the famous quarterback and his siblings grew up. The Wildlife and Fisheries had stopped Favre while boating to ask for identification.

“(Brett’s) brother had gotten in some trouble for some stuff and they kept looking at me and I realized about midway through that they thought I was him,” Favre said with a laugh. “And I was like, I’m not who you think I am. He goes, ‘Oh yeah, we know who you are.’

“His brother just happened to be named Scott and that was an unfortunately coincidence. It made for a good story.”