Ian Williams sailing an IOD in Bermuda, copyright Charles Anderson/WMRT.
by Matt Denney
Team GAC Pindar’s twice previous ISAF World Match Racing Champion, Ian Williams, heads to Bermuda this week for the penultimate round of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour.
The Argo Group Gold Cup is the oldest Match Racing event in the world involving one design yachts and will take place at The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Hamilton Harbour from 4-10 October. A total of 22 teams, including two female skippers, will be striving to lift the historic 102 year-old King Edward VII Gold Cup and a share of the USD$100,000 prize fund.
Williams, who will compete under the ‘Team GAC Pindar sponsored by Argo Group’ name for this event, is currently lying fourth in the Tour standings. He is one of five skippers who remain in contention for this year’s title and will be looking for a strong finish this week, in order to close the 33 points that separate him and Tour leader Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team), who heads the table on 105 points.
Racing begins today, with the round robin stages across three groups. The top two teams from each group, plus the top two from a ‘repechage’ round robin will then progress to the quarter finals on Friday, followed by the semi-finals on Saturday. The final and petit-final will take place on Sunday.
Williams, who won his first ever tour event in Bermuda in 2006, will face 6 skippers in the round robin phase, including Torvar Mirsky (Mirsky Racing Team), Johnie Berntsson (Berntsson Sailing Team) and Anna Tunnicliffe (Team Tunnicliffe) who won gold in the Laser Radial at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Also competing in the event is Britain’s newly crowned ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Champion, Lucy Macgregor, who is coached by Ian Williams.
Speaking from Bermuda Williams commented, “We face an uphill task at this stage of the Tour, but remain focused on giving it our best shot and trying to win the final two events. If we can get a good result here in Bermuda, we will be in a much stronger position for the Monsoon Cup, where anything can happen.”
The final event of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour will take place at the Monsoon Cup in Kuala Terengganu Malaysia from Nov 30 - Dec 5. The overall Championship will be decided by the skippers’ top five finishes in 2010, plus their result from the Monsoon Cup, which will award 1.5 times the usual points, to the top eight finishers.
Team GAC Pindar sponsored by Argo Group crew: Ian Williams (skipper), Simon Shaw, Richard Sydenham and Mal Parker.
Team GAC Pindar
World Match Racing Tour
