Yachting: Match racers looking for strong finish

Skipper Phil Robertson and his young New Zealand crew are looking for a strong finish to an instructive first year on yachting's World Match Racing Tour.

Robertson, 24, and the Waka Racing Team are ninth on the points table after five of the tour's eight regattas, with the next stop being the Swiss alpine resort of St Moritz at the end of the month.

New Zealand has a rich pedigree in match racing, with Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts, Dean Barker and Adam Minoprio among the list of world champions.

Waka Racing, having originally targeted an overall placing of sixth in their debut on the circuit, readjusted the goal upwards to third after a solid build-up over the previous two years.

Over that period, they steadily raised their world ranking from the mid-50s -- they are now seventh.

They also grabbed a notable victory last November, when they took out Australia's premier match racing event, the Australia Cup, knocking out Frenchman Matheiu Richard, and two world champions in Britons Ben Ainslie and Ian Williams along the way.

"We put our expectations really high because we achieved every goal we had set out in the past and thought we might as well push ourselves a little harder," Robertson today from Britain, where he is sailing at Cowes Week,

"It hasn't quite gone to plan this year, but we're definitely learning a lot. There's a lot of positives in our team work, and in getting the right structure and format going into and during an event."

Robertson and his crew of fellow Aucklanders James Williamson, Garth Ellingham and Sam Bell, who are also in their 20s, have competed in four rounds of the tour, their best result being third in Germany in May.

The quartet are all graduates of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron youth training programme and

Robertson, Williamson and Ellingham go back many years.

At 13, the three sailed in the same New Zealand Optimist team at the Oceania championships.

As new boys on the block, developing the mental side of their game had been among the learning curves.

"All the guys you sail against are so experienced and have been around the game for years, so they know how it all runs and they know all the boats really well," Robertson said.

"It's just the head game and trying to be calm, learning how to control the nerves and how to deal with the pressure of it all."

While Waka Racing have only an outside chance of ending the season among the top three as they had hoped, one longer-term target, set when they were established in 2009, remained -- winning the world title in 2013.

"We'll definitely have another crack next year and build on this year," Robertson said.

"Making the podium next year would be ideal."