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Ineos Britannia start coach Ian Williams and his band of brothers just landed Williams an eighth World Match Racing title; it beggars belief. Look at his predecessors – Sir Russell Coutts three world titles; Chris Dickson three titles; Peter Gilmour three titles; Sir Ben Ainslie one. All bar Williams have been Cup skippers on multiple occasions. But the real winner – as is so often the case – is Coutts. By winning three straight titles, in 1997 Coutts received a Fabergé Egg on top of US$250,000 prizemoney. Given the eggs can change hands into the tens of millions of dollars, then series-sponsor Brut never disclosed if they had ever insured against such a possibility
GREAT BRITAIN When Ineos Britannia drafted in Ian Williams as starting coach and rules advisor in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, suddenly the Cup world sat up and took note that the British challenge was getting much more serious. At the time Ian was a seven-time World Match Racing champion and regarded by many as one of the finest and most intelligent sailors ever to emerge from these shores. Ben Ainslie’s team already had gold dust in their ranks but as
the regatta progressed the influence of Ian was palpable. Dylan Fletcher and Ainslie, co-skippers, now had a sounding board with fresh ideas, while the Williams-inspired port entry dial-up and circle back from above the line became a calling card that the Kiwis could only reliably defend after more hours spent in the simulator. Talking to Ian about the Cup is refreshing: ‘I found the whole AC
experience really interesting. In many ways it is like any other match racing regatta, where you are trying to find the right balance between preparing for the next race and preparing for the final race, whenever that might be. ‘You have to get through each round, but at the same time you
have to learn as much as you can while doing so. For a WMRT-style regatta the development is mostly in the way we handle the boats, as we sail different boats at every regatta. ‘But in the America’s Cup the development is much more
multi-dimensional – there is of course a similar focus on learning the sailing techniques, but you are also trying to develop the boat at the same time. In addition, match racing with foiling monohulls is still in its infancy as a discipline, so we were learning a lot about how to approach the match race positioning as the regatta pro- gressed. Trying to cram in all the learning, while still keeping the sailors as clear-minded and fresh as possible is something we as coaches put a lot of thought into.’ The America’s Cup arena seems like the obvious sphere for Ian
to operate in but it has been a long road to recognition: ‘When I quit my job as a lawyer 20 years ago the inspiration behind the risk
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was the possibility of rising up through the ranks and having an impact in the America’s Cup arena. When the Cup moved away from displacement monohulls it also moved away from me. So it has been incredible for me to finally get involved this time round, albeit 15 or so years after I’d planned… ‘With Ineos Britannia we did a lot of things well. The team is rightly
proud of being the first British Cup team to win a Challenger selection series. But nobody really dreams of winning the Louis Vuitton Cup, so definitely unfinished business.’ As the Cup deflated faster than a popped balloon, and the sailors
scattered to the four corners of the world, Ian eyed the World Match Racing Tour final and the chance for a frankly unbelievable eighth world title. The Tour’s relevance has been heightened in the afterglow of the Cup and the skills gained there are again proving both vital and relevant. It’s a school of hard knocks that every aspiring Cup skipper should once again be aiming at. Shenzhen Bao’an in China was the venue for this year’s world
championship decider and, with light airs dogging the opening races, Williams looked like an unlikely winner, ending up in the repêchage – yet banking vital time in the boat that ultimately proved profitable. ‘I think in many ways it helped us to be in the repêchage. ‘With my coaching roles in SailGP and the America’s Cup I have
had very little time helming or even sailing at all this year, so I really needed as many hours as possible to be ready for the knock-out stages. And, as ever with match racing regattas, you just need to find a way to get into the next round and then you get to start again on 0-0.’ Even once he’d made it to the last two, sailing with his crew of
Jon Gundersen, Richard Sydenham and Gerry Mitchell, and supported by longterm sponsor Andrew Pindar under Pindar’s Manuport Logistics branding, Williams didn’t have it all his own way in the first-to-three final after a top-mark collision saw the team docked points and forced to race an extra heat. ‘It certainly was quite a strange experience, crossing the line and
IAN ROMAN
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