Twenty nine year old Ian Williams has secured a sponsorship deal with Pindar. Williams who won the King Edward VII Gold Cup in Bermuda last week see previous news story here and now leads the World Match Racing Tour has signed a 14-month deal with Pindar, which includes re-naming the team to ‘Team Pindar’ and supporting them throughout the 2006-7 season (the remainder of the current World Match Racing Tour).

Next event on the calendar for Williams and his team is the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle which is the only US event of the World Match Racing Tour. In celebration of their support of Williams, Pindar will also be a main partner of the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle, Stage 5 of the 2006-07 World Championship season, which has an impressive line-up featuring several America’s Cup syndicate teams. The event is hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco Bay from 24 – 29 October.

Since making a bold move to begin full-time professional match racing, quitting his ‘day job’ as a lawyer in London in May of last year, Ian has notched up a series of great results, finishing second at the 2006 Elba Cup/Trofeo Locman, third at the Match Race Germany and second overall in the 2006 World Match Racing Championships which culminated in July. Ian’s stunning performance in Bermuda moves him five points ahead of Frenchman Mathieu Richard in the current 2006-07 World Match Race Tour.

Williams, based in Southampton, England, sails with a core crew taken from his squad of five; Mark Nicholls (trimmer), Mark Williams (bowman), Gerry Mitchell (trimmer), Bill Hardesty (tactician) and Simon Shaw (trimmer/tactician).

Pindar’s sponsorship of Williams will work in addition to their on-going sponsorship of round-the-world yachtswoman Emma Sanderson (nee Richards), Olympic dinghy sailing hopeful Hannah Mills, and quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister. Pindar also recently announced their plans to build a new Open 60, in collaboration with Volvo Ocean Race winner Mike Sanderson, and celebrated designer Juan Kouyoumdjian.