Shirley Robertson: Ian Williams - how a 9yr old chess champion won eight World MR titles
by Shirley Robertson 18 Jul 04:50 NZST
18 July 2025
Ian Williams/GBR, Gladstone's Long Beach, with crew Richard Sydenham, Gerry Mitchell, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney, Oisin Mcclelland - 2024 Congressional Cup © Ian Roman/WMRT
This month, Double Olympic gold medallist and podcast host Shirley Robertson is joined by eight-time World Match Racing Champion Ian Williams, as the duo get together to discuss Williams' career at the sharp end of the most combative discipline in the sport of competitive sailing.
Williams discusses his early route to the top of the World Match Racing Tour rankings, a climb that involved turning his back on a full job as a lawyer, to make the most of his very obvious talent in the tough one-on-one world of match racing. It is however clear that the analytical and exacting approach required from a legal professional did not escape him, having made the switch to full time match racing...:
"One day I thought 'hang on, we're pretty good at this, we're pretty fast, we can read the shifts well, we've got the start under control, how's is he going to beat us', and suddenly that was like a light bulb going off, and suddenly we were able to beat him and from that day on I haven't focused on other boats, I've always gone with the approach that if we just go with our plays we should be good."
For any sailor interested in the complexities of the match racing world, this is a fascinating listen. Williams has won the tour an unprecedented eight times, and has a unique approach to taking on the world's best and winning.
"I think the most useful is a frame work for what is a winning start, and how do you get there. The most useful thing is being able to analyse after the start how you won or lost and why, and that often gets lost if you don't have that framework. Sometimes you win by luck, by default, by a mistake by the other boat and if you haven't understodd why youve won, then you're not learning."
But from a discipline that was once a well trodden path to America's Cup involvement Williams also discusses how the Cup's move to multi hulls and then foiling left the multiple Match Racing World Tour winner without an America's Cup pathway...:
"The America's Cup was the dream that made me quit the law and go sailing, that was in 2005, in 2007 the last displacement monohull Cup was the same year that I made #1 in the match racing world rankings and then the game moved away from me and if I look at it critically I didnt have the flexibility to adapt quickly enough to where the game went....by the time I figured out catamaran sailing the boats were foiling."
His disappointment has been the British AC37 team's gain, as Williams discusses his role in Barcelona as Pre-Start coach at Sir Ben Ainslie's INEOS Britannia team.
Throughout this two part podcast Williams and Robertson touch on a wide range of subjects around the complexities of Williams' journey from a nine year old school chess champion to his position as one of the most respected match racing champions in the sport of sailing.
Part 1:
Part 2: