British skipper Ian Williams of Team Pindar has solidified his lead of the World Match Racing Tour by finishing in third place at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia. Williams defeated Australian match racing veteran Peter Gilmore 2-1 in the petite final to win MYR 100,000 (approximately $27,800) and valuable points towards the Tour series. Team Pindar now leads the World Match Racing Tour series by 12 points.

Williams, 29, is Britain’s most promising match racing helmsman, and his team of brother Mark, Bill Hardesty, Simon Shaw and Mark Nichols are sponsored by Pindar. The sixth event of the current Tour was sailed in light, testing conditions on the Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, and was contested by an impressive field of professional match racing sailors, including several America’s Cup teams. It was one of these teams led by skipper Peter Holmberg, who won the Monsoon Cup from Mathieu Richard in today’s final, currently the second placed skipper on the World Match Racing Tour. Next year’s Monsoon Cup will be the final event of the 2006-2007 season, and count for double points towards the 2007 World Championship.

The World Match Racing Tour now takes a break until the New Year. Over the winter months Team Pindar will compete in the UK based JP Morgan Match Racing Series, held at Queen Mary Reservoir, London.

Williams commented: “We’ve had a good regatta here in Malaysia; sunny, ten knots of breeze and some great matches. As a team, we are pleased with our performance this weekend, we made a few frustrating mistakes in the quarter finals, but overall I think that we solidified our sailing throughout the event and learnt a lot – it’s all about teamwork.”