By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Robert Phillips is currently offshore racing thousands of miles across the globe, competing at the highest levels of solo ocean racing, and representing Canada in grueling days-long competitions, but it all began back in his hometown of Caledon.

“I think it all started with a very small moment,” says Phillips.

One day, he and his dad were driving the back roads of Caledon when they stumbled upon a broken sailboat someone had left on the side of the road.

With his dad, an engineer, ready for a challenge, they strapped the boat to the hood of the car and spent the day with fibreglass and Kevlar.

“We patched it up, made our own little mast for it, our own sail and took it out on the reservoir in Orangeville, and then something just kind of clicked,” says Phillips. “I fell in love with gliding across the water and since then it's been sort of finding my own way back to that early childhood passion and it's just grown and grown.”

Phillips attended university for mineral exploration, which led him into a career as an exploration geologist. Through his job, he found his way back to his passion.

He got his commercial captain's license and started driving commercial vessels, and from there, he says it led him to the “purest form of getting around the ocean,” sailing.

From there, he moved from sailing to sailing at extreme speeds.

He credits many good mentors along the way who saw his passion for being on the water.

“I think it's a pathway that's really hard for most people to go down, even those who have a connection to the sea and a racing community, because it takes a lot of showing up,” says Phillips.

Phillips is currently the only Canadian racing in the Classe Mini 6.50 fleet, a highly competitive circuit of various offshore races on tiny 6.5-meter sailboats.

He describes these mini-races as pinnacle events across the Atlantic that represent one of the “most intense and adventurous offshore sailing challenges in the world.”

Sailors race solo across 4,000 miles of open ocean in a 21-foot boat designed for speed, resilience, and innovation. 

“It's an endurance sport, so a lot of it is just finding your boundaries and then pushing them. It takes a lot of passion because there's days the motivation is there, and there's a lot of days there isn't. It's just knowing what the feeling of crossing a finish line is like and pushing yourself closer to it,” he adds.

Despite the surprisingly small and spartan design of the boats, he says they endure massive waves, changing weather, and long periods of isolation. 

“The race pushes human endurance, navigational skills, and mental toughness to the limits, often serving as a proving ground for future sailing legends,” says Phillips. “It is a raw, stripped-down test of seamanship where strategy, courage, and survival instincts matter as much as speed across thousands of nautical miles of an everchanging playing field.”

These races, he notes, push many limits: no connection to the outside world, no phone, sleeping for only 10 minutes at a time, and isolation for up to 30 days. 

He adds it takes a lot of motivation and endurance to complete.

“It becomes a big game of who can go the fastest and who can make the best tactical decisions with the weather, the wind, the waves, the currents,” he says. “It's like playing chess, but on the biggest field on Earth, in an environment where if you make a mistake, you could die.”

“Through all the hardship you find these incredible moments of clarity and peace and connection with your surroundings. When you focus on nothing but using the elements to go as fast as you can on the biggest playing field in the world, you develop this sort of connection.”

He says despite the sport being incredibly challenging, the satisfaction of completing it feels “incredible.”

“In our day-to-day jobs, especially being a geologist, I spend a lot of time making spreadsheets and maps and plans and budgets. In that kind of setting, you don't really get to experience enough real, true moments where you can feel fear, you can feel joy. There's a real feeling that comes from it,” says Phillips.

“There's just something amazing about pushing yourself way beyond where you thought your limits were and achieving something through that. You come back to land standing a little taller, knowing you can really take anything on.”

In the past, Phillips competed in the 2021 First Globe 40, a circumnavigation race around the world.

“I think that really lit the fire for me, okay, I've done this on someone else's campaign. I think it's time to do things my way, fund my own boat, and just see how fast I can go,” he recounts.

Currently preparing for his next race in France as part of the circuit, Phillips is able to look back on what he has accomplished thus far and what he has done to make it happen.

Not only is Phillips the only Canadian taking part, but he is the only one competing who is currently unsponsored.

Sponsoring his race himself, or as he likes to say, sponsored by General Tso's chicken.

No, that's not just a funny anecdote for him; the chicken dish serves as a reminder of comfort for Phillips.

When he was attending the University of Toronto and cramming for a next-day exam, he recalls that he would always be able to rely on General Tso's chicken.

Once at one of his finish lines in Paris, one of his friends was waiting for him, not alone, but with a bottle of champagne and General Tso's chicken.

One day, he says, he may even open up his own Chinese restaurant, complete with punk rock music and craft beers on tap.

The idea to have General Tso's chicken listed as his sponsor for the race came from the challenge of finding a sponsor in itself.

“Trying to get sponsors in Canada is incredibly hard for a sport that is relatively unknown,” he explains. “The financial commitment to get to the finish line of the last race is [approximately] 200,000 euros. At this point, I'm sponsoring this just through my own hard work in a fleet of boats that have professional sponsors across the board.”

“It's also my way of just taking a crack at that and saying, look, you can do this yourself if you're willing to commit to it, and you can make sponsors whatever you want if you're the one funding the program.

“I also just love the General Tso chicken.”

As the only Canadian taking part in the circuit, he says it's been an incredible challenge.

“I'm in a new country, a new town, trying to learn a new language in a situation where I need to absorb a lot of information. It adds a whole other level of hardship to trying to do this that I didn't expect first coming in,” says Phillips.

But, he adds, the welcoming nature of the sailing community and the people in Brittany, France, has “been incredible” and helped him immensely.

Being the only Canadian gives Phillips a sense of pride.

“I'm toting the Canadian flag, this makes me the Canadian ambassador in a lot of these ocean racing settings, which is a really nice thing to do. I've got Canadian flags on the boat, I've got my name and a Canadian flag on my van that I drive around to all the races. It's pretty special to be that, and it also leaves me with something to prove,” he says.

Not just something to prove for Canada, but something to prove for Canadian sailing.

Phillips hopes to inspire the next generation of offshore racers and sailors here in Canada.

Throughout his career, Phillips has partnered with Canadian yacht clubs as much as possible to provide talks and information sessions on the sport.

With another year and a half to go in the circuit, Phillips looks ahead to the next leg on June 14, the Fastenet Race, a doubles race sailing from France to Ireland and back, where he's bringing along another Canadian crew member for the ride.

Phillips hopes the endurance sport soon finds its home here with Canadians, as there are many ways to get involved and watch the races.

“These races are so big and so gruelling that just finishing it is a massive accomplishment, and you feel that support all over the circuit,” says Phillips, looking ahead to his future races. “It doesn't matter if you come first or last; if you cross that finish line, everyone around you is so happy and supportive of what you've done, and that's really motivating.”

Phillips references the term “chronoception,” and explains that new moments in life create more powerful memories.

“For me, right now, the way to create these memories is through offshore sailing, but everyone has access to the outdoors, which is full of opportunities to explore and experience, making your life a little longer each time.”

“If this campaign stands for anything, it's get outside, put the phone down, and do something new.”