April 7, 2012 (Novato, CA) Last Saturday, Muscle Milk/Molecule MEGA athlete, Memo Gidley, added another chapter to his vast and varied racing career by finishing 7th in class in the Single Handed Sailing Society Corinthian fourteen mile sailboat race on the San Francisco Bay. This was Gidley’s first race as skipper of the New Zealand built Elliott 35ft “Basic Instinct” sailboat from Sausalito, CA. Because this is a double handed race, Gidley had only one crew member, Jan Borjeson from Tiburon, CA. “Even though I have raced many, many things, I have never been the man at the wheel on a sailboat of this size and racing quality,” said Gidley. “To say I was a little nervous would be a massive understatement… especially after hearing the race would have over 135 boats total with 13 different classes!”
Basic Instinct was in a class with 14 boats and was the first wave to take the start horn and cross the start line. The rest of the classes would start every five minutes thereafter. Just as the race began the wind dropped to nearly nothing which saw the entire fleet barely crawling and fighting to stay ahead of the fast incoming SF tide and struggling to round the first two marks. By the third leg, the wind kicked up and Basic Instinct really started to move forward. At the fourth leg the wind once again died completely and the entire fleet once again was barely making any headway. By the final leg the wind kicked up again to a decent 15kts and a good battle ensued between “Basic Instinct” and its nemesis the 40ft Schumaker design “Q”.
“We had a fantastic final leg with the wind blowing and “Basic Instinct” flying upwind”, said Gidley. “I have to say, having Jan with me was like having the ultimate crew chief on your side. He just really knows how to extract the best out of “Basic Instinct” and really made my job of steering quite easy.” Jan Borjeson, has been racing and owned “Basic Instinct” for the last fifteen ten years, and had great success include finishing third overall in the 2006 Pacific Cup race from San Francisco to Hawaii.
“It was also really cool for me to represent Muscle Milk in their first ever sailboat race,” said Gidley. “Racing on the water, we really only have time to eat and drink…quickly! So, having Muscle Milk RTD’s within reach to keep the energy level up and Cytomax to keep hydrated is a perfect fit.”
Gidley has numerous races scheduled this summer at the helm of “Basic Instinct” and looks forward to getting that first win soon. “Sailboat racing and car racing are very similar from a tactical and aerodynamic standpoint,” said Gidley. “And the concentration needed to balance your sail trims and boat position for hours at a time can be mentally exhausting. I really had a great time and now look forward to hitting the streets of Long Beach for this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix in the Muscle Milk/Molecule #5 LMPC car!”