Ian Williams, the six-times world match racing champion, and Team GAC Pindar will look to continue their winning ways during the penultimate round of the inaugural M32 Bermuda Winter Series, which starts today in the Great Sound.

The British team is fresh off victory at last week’s opening event of the World Match Racing Tour season in Fremantle, Australia, and will look to pick up where they left off when the winter series resumes.

“We had a great regatta in Fremantle for Team GAC Pindar,” Williams, the King Edward VII Gold Cup winner, said.

“It was a little unexpected for us to be at the front of the pack so early with the M32. But obviously we are happy with that, and we are back here to keep pushing forward and learning the boat.

“It is a learning curve, for sure. But we have a lot of M32 experience on the boat, so we are very happy with the team that we’ve got, and I think we will go from strength to strength.”

The third round of the M32 Bermuda Winter Series will involve six boats, including Don Wilson’s Convexity, the overall series leaders.

Former world match racing champion and King Edward VII Gold Cup winner Taylor Canfield and Team USone, who won the second round of the series last month, have not returned for this event.

Williams and his colleagues earned a place on the podium in the previous round after finishing runners-up behind Canfield and Team USone.

“It’s great to be back in Bermuda,” Williams added. “I think it’s going to be some great racing.”

Team GAC Pindar took full advantage of yesterday’s 12 to 18 northerly breezes to push their one-design catamaran during a practice sail in Hamilton Harbour.

“We had about 24 knots on the clock down Hamilton Harbour, and so that was good fun,” Williams said.

“We were just trying a few things out.

“You always come away from a regatta with things you wish you would have done a little bit better, and so we were looking at a few of those things to see if we can push the game forward a bit farther.”