SailGP: Zipped Lips in Halifax Media Conference

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 20 Jun 12:20 AEST

Peter Burling, Phil Robertson, Taylor Canfield and Tash Bryant at the Media Conference ahead of Canada SailGP, Halifax - June 19, 2026 © Katelyn Mulcahy/SailGP

Updated: Competitors involved in the three-boat pileup at SailGP New York evaded questions on the incident at Friday's Media Conference, ahead of Canada SailGP.

The session opened with comments from NorthStar SailGP Team skipper Giles Scott and flight controller Billy Gooderham. Better known as a double Olympic Gold medalist for Great Britain, Scott pointed out that he had lived in Canada until he was 7yrs old and holds a Canadian passport.

In the second panel, four sailors were called forward - Tash Bryant, of the Bonds Flying Roos, Phil Robertson - Red Bull Italy, Taylor Canfield - Team USA, and Peter Burling of the Black Foils.

Interestingly, three of the four sailors had been involved in serious incidents that damaged their boats, in Season 6.

The session soon took a comedic turn, when, on cue, the professional sailors disappeared down various rabbitholes to avoid responding to questions about the three boat pile-up on Day 2 of the previous SailGP regatta in New York.

The incident had been milked to death by SailGP League and other media in the three weeks following the incident. But come the Media Conference the topic was off limits.

Host, BJ Wilson, from Q 104 Radio, in Halifax, apparently wasn’t part of the plot, continuing to ask questions about the unspeakable, when it was obvious all lips were zipped.

“Taylor, take us back to that start sequence. What happened, and at what point did you realize that contact couldn't be avoided? ” Wilson asked.

“I'm just excited to be here in Halifax," replied Canfield. "The sun just came out, great, great racing ahead of us. So, it's like Phil said, it's been a warm welcome already. We've only been here a day, and people are coming up, and the buzz is the buzz is real, and it's great to see the city so pumped for the event, and the grandstand coming up. They're nearly sold out, so it's gonna be a good show.”

“Handcuffs look good on you,” quipped Wilson before doing a quick tack.

“Let's go to Phil [Robertson] for a second here,” Wilson continued.

“From your cockpit, it would have looked very different. You were approaching the start line, but we're early, and you rotated up to stay behind it, so walk us through what you saw, and does an incident like that change how you might treat the boats around you on a crowded start line, which is what it's expected to be this weekend?"

Robertson started with another weather report and realised mid-sentence that it was starting to look a bit lame, and quickly switched to acknowledge the tremendous effort put in by the teams from SailGP Technologies and local East River Shipyard.

“It’s going to be an interesting weekend, weather-wise, the breezes now look….I think I speak for all teams here, and no one wants to crash these boats. It's just really annoying, and not only does it put you out for that weekend, but it can also potentially put you out for events to come."

“I am shocked sitting here today, knowing that we're probably going to have a boat to race with this weekend, and that's just credit to Sail GP, Sail GP Technologies, and all the guys that put in many, many hours. Sail GP said to us afterwards, they're going to move mountains to make sure our boat's ready, and they certainly have. We're just super appreciative of all the work that's been done to get our boat back up here in Halifax, and racing this weekend, and hopefully it's a good ship, not a warship!”

Canfield seemed to find his PR compass for the next question about the New York crash, costing the US team a place in what could have been a home Final.

“It's always been about progress for us. We're just keeping pushing along and making that next step, and it doesn't always show up … we've been progressing nicely, and making some good gains, and that remains the goal ......

Wilson then flicked back to Robertson, who previously skippered the Canadian SailGP team.

“I'm not done with New York just yet, Phil,” Wilson said. “I want to come back to you for a second here. I want to know about the debriefs, how those have been since that event, and as we know, Brazil was deemed not at fault. But do you believe that they could have avoided that collision at the start?”

Robertson put his hands up. “I've been put on a tight leash. BJ,” he explained.

“Well, and we know how you treat those, Phil,” Wilson shot back.

“You do know me too well,” Robertson suggested.

“It's a bit of a strange situation, and I think we've made our point pretty clear many times …. it seems like a bit of a strange outcome, the way that it's sort of been ruled and deemed where the points have been given.

“We probably don't really agree with it, but it is what it is in a sport, and we're here to race this weekend, and we've definitely left that behind us now, and what's done is done, and it's time to go racing again in Halifax.”

From there, the session straightened course, with Bonds Flying Roos tactician Tash Bryant and Black Foils Peter Burling both giving fulsome answers. Wilson again returned to questioning Robertson

“Turning to other repairs, Phil, your boat took the worst of it, with structural damage requiring the most complex repairs of those involved in last month's crash. As we sit here on Friday morning, are you confident that you're definitely going to be out there?”

“Yes, she's together. She's sort of working,” Robertson replied.

“She's probably just going in the water now, and we're going to head out just quite shortly to sort of start the commissioning phase. Basically, we’re just testing all the systems and the platform's structure after all the repairs. Then we'll see what happens after that”.