World Match Racing Tour: Ian Williams takes title for a record fifth time in GAC Pindar

Williams was tied on four titles each with Australia’s Peter Gilmour, whose son David he beat in the quarter-final

Ian Williams (centre) has won back his crown as match racing champion of the world and for a record fifth time at the World Match Racing Tour Monsoon Cup finale in Johor, Malaysia (ROBERT HADJUK/WMRT)

Britain has a new world champion. GAC Pindar skipper Ian Williams, in dominant form, took the World Match Racing Tour title for a record fifth time, won the Monsoon Cup finale for a third time, and, in addition to two impressive trophies presented by the Sultan of Johor in Malaysia, the team picked up £120,000 in prize money with Williams also securing his skipper’s bonus. Twelve-week old son Joshua should be in line for an impressive silver spoon.

Williams was tied on four titles each with Australia’s Peter Gilmour, whose son David he beat in the quarter-final. Eric Monnin was the hapless victim in the semi-final and France’s Mathieu Richard was pinned by the throat in the final. The man from Nantes had no answer to Williams’ clinical, even ruthless, success in establishing control at the start.

In tricky wind conditions, relieved by there being no torrential downpours as in Monsoon Cups of old, Williams and his crew of Gerry Richards, Chris Main, who shaved off his moustache between the semi-final and final, Mal Parker, and Graeme Spence won 19 of their 20 races over five days.

The policy of keeping a five-man squad paid off, with GAC Pindar making six finals in the seven-event series.

The petite finale play-off went to the old champion, Taylor Canfield of the U.S. Virgin Islands, who beat Switzerland’s Eric Monnin 2-0. Canfield had been written up as the grudge factor after beating Williams to the punch in 2013 and making the Briton wait for another year for his record win.

Whether Canfield will be back for the 2015-16 season is up in the air. Very unlikel, he said. Richard also said he would not be back. An announcement is due from WMRT in the next two to four weeks on the schedule of regattas for 2015-16 but, so far, it is thought, the programme has only a beginning, at the Congressional Cup in May at Long Beach, California, a middle at the Stena Cup in Marstrand, Sweden, and back to Johor for the Monsoon Cup finale.