Phil Robertson blazes at Alpari World Match Racing Tour

Marstrand, Sweden (July 2, 2013) – Phil Robertson has been sailing out of his skin to be joint top of the leaderboard with Simone Ferrarese after a stunning day of sunshine and strong wind at Stena Match Cup Sweden, the third event on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

The Kiwi skipper of WAKA Racing sits on 7 wins and 1 loss, a hit rate that he attributes to three days of training before this regatta. “Our training in Oslo helped with tidying up the on-board communication since the Korea Match Cup, making sure we’re doing things as they should be done within each of the roles on the team,” said Robertson. “We’re keeping it simple.”

WAKA’s one loss came against Keith Swinton and Black Swan Racing. “We got a bit relaxed in that race,” said Robertson. “I saw an opportunity to try and screw Keith over a bit more and that was the mistake. When you start getting on a winning streak, it’s easy to lose a bit of focus, so it’s good to have a loss just to kick the boys up the arse and make sure we’re still firing.”

Robertson won Qualifying last year and wants to do the same, to get his pick of the draw for the Quarter-Finals. Other fancied teams are struggling to get points on the board, such as Taylor Canfield and USone who had a thrilling match against WAKA Racing. After slapping each other with penalties in the early stages, Canfield picked up another penalty on the final run. “Our kite hit his backstay and we held him out at the finish but didn’t quite do enough to clear the penalty.”

The qualifying round robin series concludes for the 12 teams on Wednesday, with the top eight teams advancing for the knock-out phase of the competition. – Full report

Background: Stena Match Cup Sweden is the third stop on the six event World Match Racing Tour (WMRT), the leading professional sailing series that is sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Prize money is awarded for each event, with event points culminating in the crowning of the “ISAF Match Racing World Champion”.