RYA National Match Racing Champion Ian Williams (Weybridge, Surrey), sailing with his regular crew of Mark Nicholls and Mark Williams, narrowly lost out to local favourite Markus Wieser in a close final at the Berlin Match Race Championships on Sunday 3 November in H-boats on Lake Wansee.

Having previously knocked out both the reigning world match racing champion and the current number one ranked match race team in the world, Williams first dispatched with former H-boat world champion Steffan Meister 2-0 in the semi final while Bjorn Hansen (ranked 5) took Wieser to three races before succumbing to the former two times winner of the Berlin Match Race.

In the first race of the final, Williams inflicted two penalties on Wieser during the pre-start manoeuvring before sailing away to a simple victory. Coming off the line ahead and a penalty up in the second, it looked like the final was going Williams’ way but close to the shore at the top mark the wind died away for Williams and Wieser was able to complete his penalty and sail past Williams for the win.

A double penalty inflicted on Williams in the pre-start led to an easy Weiser win in the third race. In the fourth, Williams won the favoured port end of the line at the start before Wieser picked up more pressure on the right to cross ahead at the top mark. Williams drew Wieser in up the next beat, catching him on starboard at the top and leading round the top mark. However, Wieser managed to gybe earlier on the run and, as the boats approached the finish, picked up a puff to finish less than a metre ahead, leaving Wieser to take his third win in this prestigious event.

Williams said, “We were disappointed not to win at the close but to beat five of the top ten sailors in the world shows we can beat the best in the world.”

Overall Results

1, Markus Wieser (GER)

2, Ian Williams (GBR)

3, Bjorn Hansen (SWE)

4, Stefan Meister (GER)

5, Karol Joblonski (POL)

6, Mikael Lindqvist (SWE)