Feature Article from Magnus Wheatley @ Rule69 Blog
It has been a good month to be a fan of sailing. January is supposed to be dreary, dull and dire, a time to book holidays in a desperate attempt for hope, a time to hunker down, plan, plot, write books or shed pounds.
But not this year. 2025 has got off to a flyer and is set to get even better with SailGP heaving into view quick sharp in Auckland. This week we saw a British superstar of sailing, Hattie Rogers, become Women’s World Champion in the Moth class and today we saw Ian Williams crowned the King of Macao at the first stop on the World Match Racing Tour. All we need now is Dylan Fletcher-Scott to beat up the Kiwis in their own back yard and January will be one for the record books.
I like Ian’s style. So good is he at the tricky, whippet-fast, dizzying discipline of match-racing that he is developing the air of being unbeatable. First the world championship title for the eighth time back in December and now, in Macao in a repeat of that final against Nick Egnot-Johnson, he’s done it again. It’s like watching Schumacher in his prime or Ronnie O’Sullivan on the baize, Williams is just relentlessly good and never knows when he’s beat. It’s talent of the highest order and a pleasure to witness as he just goes about his business with a humility that makes him always one of the hottest properties in sailing.
Back in the summer, it was noticeable just how much better INEOS Britannia became once Ian was signed up for them. Suddenly Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher-Scott had the perfect sounding board with an interesting playbook and rarely lost a start. The paw prints of Ian Williams was all over the team’s magnificent run to the Louis Vuitton Cup and it was only the Kiwis who found an answer to the port entry, tack above the line and dial-down move that became the British calling card. Hours were spent in the Kiwi simulator by Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge to nail that one and having miss-calculated it in one race, aced it in the next to inflict a penalty. The Kiwis knew all about the prowess of one of the world’s great match-racers and were wary at every juncture.
With Britain sitting at the top table as Challenger of Record, it won’t be long before the whole machinations of the Cup world start up again. Contracts are doing the rounds, sponsors are being secured and we’ll have a new Protocol in a few months’ time. I’d be very surprised if Ben Ainslie doesn’t secure Ian Williams’s signature as one of the first signings for his new-look team, and then locks him away in the simulator to work with the helms. What the 37th America’s Cup proved was just how close the boats are getting in terms of outright design and although I think the Kiwis are still over the horizon, what we could be seeing in the 38th edition is even closer racing and that’s exactly where Ian Williams fits right in. Ian could well be the edge that sees another Louis Vuitton Cup in the trophy cabinet and the possibility of that ugly ewer coming home to Cowes.
For now though, Ian is doing exactly what he should be doing. Honing the match-racing skills and proving beyond question that he is the grand-master of the discipline. I’m surprised that we’re not seeing more Cup ‘names’ on the World Match-Racing Tour as I would think the likes of Marco Gradoni, Harry Melges, Nico Rolaz, Leo Takahashi, Enzo Balanger – all the young guns – could do with a dust-up in one-design non foilers. Those skills learned on Tour are going to be highly prized come the 38th America’s Cup, mark my words, and the thing is, those guys all have time on their side…
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