Phil Robertson: The Kiwi carving his own path

Tune in to SailGP and you’ll find Red Bull Italy somewhere in the mix, pushing angles and making life uncomfortable for whoever happens to be nearby. That is Phil Robertson's way. The New Zealander has built a career sailing on the risky side of the reward curve, a habit that started long before he ever set foot on an F50.

Born in Auckland on 22 October 1987, Robertson grew up in a household where the smell of fibreglass was as familiar as breakfast. His father built sailing dinghies in the garage, not as a hobby but because buying them was not an option.

As a youngster, he watched New Zealand defend the America's Cup in 2000 on home waters. The sight of his heroes on Auckland Harbour lit a fire in the Kiwi’s belly that would stay ignited, even still.

At 16, he had a choice to go down the Olympic or match pacing pathway. Robertson chose match racing. A battle arena with a one-on-one format that pushes the rules of sailing to the limits. It’s a format with no place to hide, you either win or lose.

It’s that mindset that has forged Robertson into the man he is. A sailor who can turn up the risk, back himself and harness his aggression to the betterment of his team. “I do have an aggressive streak when I need it," Robertson told SailGP in the Racing on the Edge series.

Robertson joined Waka Racing and spent six years learning to turn that aggression into a system. Bronze medals at the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) in 2012 and 2013 were the early signs. A first WMRT title in 2016 was the confirmation.

That gold brought him to the ChinaOne Ningbo programme, a partnership that turned Robertson into one of the dominant forces in professional match racing.

They swept the M32 World Championship in both 2017 and 2018. Then in 2019, in Marstrand, Sweden, Robertson claimed his second WMRT title, defeating American and fellow SailGP driver Taylor Canfield three races to nil in the final.

Only four sailors in the history of the WMRT have won it more than once. Robertson is one of them.

SailGP launched that same year, and Robertson was on the grid from day one. He was handed the wheel of the China SailGP Team, a developing programme with limited resources and a long road ahead. Nevertheless, he hauled the team to third place by the close of SailGP’s inaugural season.

Spain came next, in season two. Then Canada, for seasons three and four. He was later replaced at Canada ahead of season five - an abrupt close to that chapter, but the phone rang again.

For the final event of season five, Robertson was back, stepping into the Red Bull Italy cockpit in place of Olympic gold medallist Ruggero Tita. Season six, Robertson's first full campaign with the team.

The same instincts that made him dangerous in a match race, the willingness to push, to hold his line, to make the other boat blink first, make him a handful on the SailGP circuit too. That aggression has occasionally come at a cost, with Robertson at the centre of more than one notable incident on the water. The most recent example being the three-boat pile-up in New York, in which Robertson and his match racing rival Taylor Canfield, were at the centre of. It is the inevitable by-product of a driver who treats every start as a winnable fight. 

Running quietly through all of it is the thread that gives Robertson's story its particular edge. He is a Kiwi through and through: born in Auckland, trained in the same system as the likes of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, shaped by the same harbour. But whilst those sailors have raced under the silver fern, Robertson has spent his career winning under every other flag. "I've been chasing my career," he has said, "and it's kept me out of this country for the best part of the last fifteen years."

Beyond SailGP, Robertson has now taken up a helmsman's role with Tudor Team Alinghi for the 38th America's Cup campaign. Having served as Alinghi's coach during the 37th Cup in Barcelona, he stepped up to the helm for the preliminary regatta in Sardinia, sharing duties with Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison as the Swiss challenger builds towards Naples 2027.

The match racer from Auckland, who spent years winning under other nations' flags, is now aiming for the sport's biggest prize. He has made a habit of proving people wrong; he’ll be wanting to do just that come the Cup in Naples.