Match Race Germany: British sailor Ian Williams wins with Team GAC Pindar at Langenargen

Sweet success for, left to right, Ian Williams, Gerry Mitchell, Bill Hardesty, Mal Parker and Matt Cornwell as Team GAC Pindar wins the opening German march race event of the Alpari season at Langenargen (Ian Roman/AMWRT)

An emphatic start to his bid for a fifth world title was made by Ian Williams as his Team GAC Pindar plundered a runaway win at Langenargen of Match Race Germany.

It was Williams’ second in succession, he won every race except one, and, even though the final was reduced to a sudden death showdown, his opponent managed to hit the committee boat at the start. From then on, despite the horribly light winds that have characterized the whole of the Lake Constance regatta, he clamped a controlling lock on Australia’s Keith Swinton. There was no way back.

Adding a little cream to the substantial portion of pie that meant maximum points from the first of the Alpari 2014 series, Williams also saw the man who stopped him from winning a fifth title last year, Taylor Canfield of the US Virgin Islands, slump to seventh when opening his defence.

It will not stop Canfield, and Williams still has to beat off all other rivals not forgetting the finale, the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia, counts double points. But GAC Pindar will carry confidence and momentum into the next and most popular of the tour events, the Stena Cup in Marstrand, Sweden.