IAN Williams is aiming to sail into the record books - by winning his FIFTH world match racing title.

The Lymington-based ace is currently level with sailing legend Peter Gilmour on four and will be the first to make it a quintet if he beats Taylor Canfield, or finishes within one place of his nearest rival and defending champion (as he has done in the last three events) in next week’s Monsoon Cup in Malaysia.

“Peter Gilmour is the benchmark, the guy you looked to learn from, so to go past him and do something that no-one else has achieved would be special,” said Williams. Results from the seventh and final event will be added to the teams’ top four from the previous six.

Williams is not short on confidence, having won the Monsoon Cup in 2007 and 2011 (he was world champion in 2007-08 and 2011-12). “We have a proud record in Malaysia, as well as winning it twice we’ve been on the podium three or four times in total in the last eight years,” said the 37 year-old former solicitor.

Last year’s match-racing denouement was the closest in the competition’s 27-year history and Williams admits that losing to Canfield by just five points has made his team “hungrier to win”.

This year, however, the Monsoon Cup will be staged in a different location; Johor’s Danga Bay.

Williams and the rest of his GAC Pindar team begin their main preparation for the competition’s climax in Malaysia this weekend, ahead of the five-day competition, which begins on Tuesday.

“We’re allowed three days there before the start of the event,” he explained. “At this time of year the winds are quite light but there’s not much more you can find out before you get there. It’s not a venue that’s been sailed much but we have a really top team - a New Zealander, two Australians and another Brit.

“We’re looking forward to getting back in the groove – it’s been a long break since the last event [the Argo Group World Cup, in Bermuda last October].”

Unlike the America’s Cup, which is also match-racing based competition, the boats used on the Alpari World Tour are the same for each team and vary at each event. “I really like the fact that the boats are changed at every regatta, it means it’s not decided by the equipment which is very different to most sailing disciplines,” said Williams.

To GAC Pindar’s advantage is the fact they will be racing in the five-man Foundation 36 boat, similar to those in which they beat 25 year-old Canfield’s US One crew in Germany and Sweden in the early stages of this event last summer.

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