Biography

Born in Exeter on 26 April 1977, Ian grew up in Exmouth in Devon within sight of the sea. His first English Channel crossing came at the age of 6 weeks old and he has been sailing since.

He began racing at the age of 9 in the International Cadet Class. His first match racing experience came in winning the UK Youth Match Racing Championship in 1994, an event which Ian went on to win 2 more times before following that up with a win at the senior Nationals in 1997. Since that time, Ian has been concentrating on the match racing circuit with a brief break for an Olympic campaign in a Soling for the Sydney Olympics (Ian finished 2nd at the trials). Concurrently, Ian has trained and qualified as a solicitor with leading city firm Ashurst. Ian is a 3 times National Match Racing Champion and 3 times Runner-up. He has been ranked in the top 10 of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Match Race Rankings since July 2003 and in October 2005 broke into the top 5. Ian reached World Number 1 in May 2007.

In May 2005, Ian took a 6 month sabbatical from his job with Ashurst as a Solicitor in London to concentrate on the match racing circuit. Having won 2 Grade 1 events in those 6 months, Ian parted company with Ashurst in order to move up the match racing rankings and expand his sailing experience. In his first full year on the World Match Racing Tour (05/06 season) Ian finished in 2nd place overall and in October 2006 Ian won his first World Match Racing Tour event, the Bermuda Gold Cup.

Following on from that success, Ian led the World Match Racing Tour for the majority of 2007. Having dropped to 2nd overall at the penultimate event in Brazil, the team came back strongly to win the final event in Malaysia and claim the Tour title. With this win Ian became first Brit to be crowned Match Racing World Champion in the event's 19 year history.