Great Britain
WS Ranking 11
Gladstone's Long Beach

Royal Yachting Association

Ian Williams started his career in sailing with an English Channel crossing at the age of six weeks old and has been sailing ever since.

Ian started racing in the International Cadet Class and at sixteen was selected to represent the UK at the world championships in Belgium.  The next year he won his first Youth Match Racing National Championship and has since become one of the most recognizable names in professional sailing.

Ian is a three-time nominee for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award, and also a three-time nominee for the UK’s YJA Yachtsman of the Year award. The former lawyer turned professional sailor was the first British skipper to gain the ISAF World Champion and World Match Racing Tour Champion titles. He has gone on to make history winning the prestigious title a further six times.

Although best known for his successes on the World Match Racing Tour, Ian has competed in a diverse range of classes and series, winning fleet racing championship titles in four different keelboat classes and a World Championship in the M32 catamaran, and competing in well-known circuits like the Audi MedCup, Farr 40 World Championship circuit, Extreme Sailing Series, and M32 Series.

Ian’s ambition is to one day win the America’s Cup and bring it back to British waters.

Looking to add to his impressive record, Ian is back in Long Beach in 2024 fighting hard and smart to win his 6th Congressional Cup and becoming the winningest skipper of the coveted Crimson Blazer.

Crew:

Past Results:

2^nd       Congressional Cup ‘06
1^st        Congressional Cup ‘11
1^st        Congressional Cup ‘12
3^rd        Congressional Cup ‘13
2^nd       Congressional Cup ‘14
3^rd        Congressional Cup ‘15
12^th      Congressional Cup ‘16
1^st        Congressional Cup ‘17
5^th        Congressional Cup ‘18
1^st        Congressional Cup ‘19
1^st        Congressional Cup ‘22
4^th        Congressional Cup ‘23

1^st        WMRT Final ‘23, Shenzhen Bao'an, CHN
3^rd        Bermuda Gold Cup ’23, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, BER