Team GAC Pindar’s World Match Racing sailor, Ian Williams, returns to European waters this week for the Portimão Portugal Match Cup - Stage 4 of the ISAF World Match Racing Tour.

This year’s Portuguese Tour event will take place at the Marina de Portimâo, on the Algarve, following a new three-year venue agreement. The racing begins on Wednesday 23 June, where a total of 12 crews, including 8 of the current top 10 sailors in the official ISAF rankings, will battle it out for a share of the US $60,000 prize purse. Crews will race on the Tour’s SM40 match-racing boats, which were specially developed by Swedish designer, Pelle Petterson.

Williams and his Team GAC Pindar crew arrive in Portugal in good form, following a second place finish at the Korea Match Cup earlier this month, which boosted their Tour ranking from eighth to third place, despite having competed in just two of the three events. Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team) has secured a 26 point lead over his rivals and is clearly proving the skipper to beat this season. He heads the leader board on 65 points, followed by Adam Minoprio (Blackmatch Racing) on 39 points and Ian Williams (Team GAC Pindar) on 30 points.

Speaking from Portugal. Williams commented “I’m really pleased with how the team has performed so far this year. We topped the round robin stages in both Germany and Korea, so certainly seem to be sailing consistently, however it’s the knock out stages that really count. It promises to be a great week and we are particularly excited about racing at the new venue in Portimão.”

Portimão is the biggest town in the western Algarve and has played host to other major sailing events including the Audi Med Cup and the Portimão Global Ocean Race. The Portimão Portugal Junior Cup is also set to take place this week (23-25 June) followed by the Portimão Portugal Women’s Cup (30 Jun – 3 Jul), offering plenty of action for the spectators to enjoy.

Williams will be joined by his brother, Mark, who replaces Mark Nicholls on the crew for this week’s event. Team GAC Pindar: Ian Williams (Skipper), Mark Williams, Simon Shaw, Richard Sydenham and Mal Parker.