Beautiful weather and nice winds greeted over 130 sailboats racing in the Single Handed Sailing Societies first big race of the season on the San Francisco Bay. Unlike most sailboat races, where every boat has on average six to eight crew members, the SSS series requires that you either sail with one or two people total!
Muscle Milk MEGA Athlete, Memo Gidley, enlisted the help of Jan Borjeson. “Jan is a great friend and sailing buddy and is the kind of person that can do it all,” said Gidley. “In this type of a race, we are only two people sailing the 35’ Basic Instinct, so you really have to be able to multi task!”
For the start, the race was postponed for thirty minutes as the race committee waited for the SF bay winds to fill in, but once the start gun sounded, “Basic Instinct” rocketed across the line. “The start is one of the most exciting parts of a sailboat race for me because they are very challenging,” said Gidley. “You would think that crossing a line at a pre determined time would be no big deal. But then throw in every changing wind, current, and the close quarters of boats everywhere and you have the makings of a very exciting start!”
Memo and Jan not only had an awesome start, but also continued to have a solid race during the entire eighteen mile course. “Other than a couple of times when the wind just more or less vanished which can be frustrating, it was a nice breeze and a very satisfying race,” said Gidley. “Both Jan and I are very competitive, and we are both always looking for that little bit extra which can make a real difference on the water and a fun environment to race in.”