8:36 PM Sun 21 Dec 2008 GMT
Two-time Match Racing World Champion Ian Williams finished 2008 on a high, successfully defending his match racing world title without even making it into the Monsoon Cup final.
At the end of the round robin stage in the ninth and final event of the World Match Racing Tour he just scraped through with six wins and five losses. Facing Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team/French Spirit) in the quarter finals, Williams must have been able to 'smell' the world title trophy.
The trophy was within his reach as long as his Bahrain Team Pindar could keep Richard out of the running. They did just that blasting their way through the three matches against Richard to qualify for the semi finals and secure the 2008 ISAF Match Racing World Championship trophy.
"I don't think we have ever beaten Richard 3-0 in a best of five before. We have had so many close races over the years. To come out 3-0; we were really pleased with how we performed," Williams said.
Matched against Adam Minoprio (ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing) in the semi finals Williams appeared to then lose his focus. He admits his team seemed not to be at their best both mentally and physically on the last race day. "You have to react very quickly to quickly changing situations. There is no doubt that our reaction time was just not quite there.
"We got beat. We certainly dropped off the pace. There is no doubt that we lost a little bit of our mental edge. But, at the same time, you've got to give credit to the guys who were sailing; Adam and Torvar. They did step it up and it was big races for them. They sailed very well. They showed that bit of extra sharpness that counted on the day," Williams said.
Williams and his team are not new to the Monsoon Cup having competed there in 2006 and 2007. However this year they found the venue particularly challenging. The torrential rain up stream in the ten days prior to the start of the cup caused a lot of flooding.
This led to the outgoing flow being a lot stronger than in previous years making a significant impact on the course area. "Combined with it coming around the island from two sides meant that not only was there a strong current, but also a big tidal gradient force. There were ebbs and different flows around the course.
"It was a very complex race course. I think that the teams that did well are the ones that managed to get their heads around what the tidal flow was, what the wind shift pattern was, and could adjust their tactics accordingly."
In summarising his experiences at the 2008 Monsoon Cup and 2008 Tour Williams said he found the evenness of the teams made the overall very close across the season. "It was in some ways fitting that we won the World Championships by making the semi finals because that is actually what we have done better than anybody else this year; we've made a lot more semi-finals. I think we've made six out of nine. It may not sound like that many but it's quite a lot more than anybody else."
Williams expects the Tour in 2009 to be exciting and hard. A new invite policy introduced by the Tour for the New Year will see eight invitations allocated by the World Tour, two invitations to winners of qualifying events and the remaining tour cards issued as wildcard entries offered to each event promoter based on their event format.
"What it is going to mean is the race for the World Championship is going to be even more hard fought. This year, because of the invite situation and people not knowing if they were going to be invited to the events, and therefore not necessarily committing to the events, there have been four or maybe five crews that were close at the end. Whereas next year we are going to have eight people that are guaranteed to be invited to the events. Those eight people are going to commit to seven out of the nine events. So it's going to be eight teams fighting it out."
Joining Williams in the top eight group on the Tour next year will be, Sebastien Col (French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge), Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team/French Spirit) and Adam Minoprio (ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing). In addition Paolo Cian (Shosholoza) and Torvar Mirsky (Mirsky Racing Team) look set to receive Tour Cards based on their ISAF Ranking.
The final two Tour Cards are yet to be determined but those eager to compete on the Tour in 2009 include Peter Gilmour (Yanmar Racing), Ben Ainslie (Team Origin) and Magnus Holmberg (Victory Challenge).
The challenge for Gilmour in 2009 will be adjusting to the game of match racing which Williams said has changed since Gilmour first started racing in the early 1990's. "It will be really interesting to see how he gets on. I think certainly in the last few years the game has become increasingly harder. Our win this year was as close as our win last year and we feel we were significantly better this year than last year. It will be interesting to see how he gets on and whether he can run with the modern game."
There is little time for the Bahrain Team Pindar to sit back and savour their Match Racing World Championship title and to plan for 2009. The team is already packing their bags for New Zealand to compete in the Louis Vuitton Pacific which starts on 30 January 2009. Williams will be in charge of a large team who will compete in Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron event on two Emirates Team New Zealand race yachts and two boats to be loaned by the BMW Oracle Racing. Ten teams are expected to race three daily match races on short 1.3 nautical mile windward/leeward courses.
Williams will be skipper on the China Team. He will have with him most of his Bahrain Team Pindar from the Monsoon Cup including tactician Richard Sydenham who has done two America's Cup and "knows the manoeuvres and the issues involved with those big boats."
"We have brought in a whole lot of other guys, particularly the people with a decent amount of America's Cup experience because we are not going to get a lot of training time and the boats are regatta styles.
It will be a massive learning curve for Williams and his match racing team. "In the World Match Racing Tour one of the big challenges is being able to get into different types of boats and work them out quickly. Of course on the World Match Racing Tour the biggest boat we sail is 40-foot so it is a slightly different challenge sailing an America's Cup with 17 people on board and coordinating those 17 people. But, we are confident the processes that we have in place on the World Match Racing Tour will be equally as valid when we are sailing the bigger boats."
Once the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is over Williams will bunker down to preparing for the defence of his Match Racing World Championship title. "We will be giving it our best shot. I think we are going to have to step up our game on to win again. It's going to be tougher again next year. There is no rest because the season ends so late you don't get a lot of time to sit back and reflect. We certainly are going to be giving it our best shot hoping to make it three in a row."
by Tracey Johnstone
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   heads to the start line in his semi final match against Ian Williams.jpg)  |
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