Olympic sailor ‘could read the water, read the wind’
Royal Hamilton Yacht Club member John Robertson represented Canada in 1948 and 1952 Games
John Robertson was a member of a unique club in Canada — a father and son who competed in the Olympics.
It’s not unusual for family generations to appear in the Games — Burlington’s Bert Oldershaw was at three Games for canoeing and his three sons took part in kayaking. But John and his father Norman may have been the first Canadian father and son to compete in the Games. Robertson — who has been described as the first and most successful dinghy sailor Hamilton and Canada has ever produced — represented Canada at the 1948 London Games and the 1952 Helsinki Games.
His father, Norman Robertson, has the distinction of being called the first Canadian Olympic sailor. He represented Canada at the 1924 Paris Games.
Neither Robertson, both longtime members of the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, scored a medal but the pair earned many sailing trophies in other competitions.
Norman Robertson’s successes were on Lake Ontario — he also took part in the inaugural Freeman Cup race between Hamilton and Kingston in 1921 — and John and his crew won the international dinghy races in England in 1967 and 1975 and also took part in the international race in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1971.
His sailing trophies include the Wilton Morse, Belmont, Bongard and the Weymouth Town Trophy.
Robertson — also known for building boats in the basement of his Burlington home (they came out through a window) — died Feb. 19 at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. He was 90.
“He really was an interesting guy,” said Robert Mazza, chair of the RHYC heritage committee, who had known Robertson since 1972 and sailed with him as a crew member.
“He was not extroverted. He kept to himself, but his sailing accomplishments speak for themselves.”
He said Robertson was the longest serving member of the RHYC when he died — about 75 years — and said he always credited his time sailing on the harbour with making him what he was on the water.
“He could read the water and read the wind,” said Mazza. “Really good sailors do that and he attributed that to sailing on the bay.”
While he followed in his father’s footsteps — his father took him sailing when he was six — Mazza said his father never pushed him into the sport. Robertson said in 2017 he didn’t really like sailing as a boy.
“When I was six, I stepped backward and fell off the dock,” he recalled. He joked the man who rescued him from the water was an undertaker.
Nonetheless, he progressed and got his own boat, a 10-foot dinghy, when he was nine.
Robertson was born May 8, 1929. His father Norman (18971976) worked at the Bridge and Tank Company of Canada. The family lived in Aldershot and Robertson attended Fairfield Public School in that community, and Waterdown and Westdale high schools. He obtained a business degree from McMaster
University in the early 1950s, and became an insurance agent right out of school. He retired in the late 1990s.
Robertson started sailing in snipes in 1942. He moved to the lightning class in 1947 where he named his first boat after his mother, Rhoda. He sailed her to victory in the Burlington Yacht Club Regatta in 1950.
His string of victories also included races in Toledo and New York state. At 19, Robertson was the youngest member of the 1948 Canadian Olympic team. He competed in the Mixed Two-Person Keelboat with Dick Townsend.
Despite placing second after four races, he and Townsend came in seventh. Robertson complained they were unfairly penalized after a protest by another nation and it put them out of medal contention.
“He thought it was a bogus protest,” said Mazza. “He did bring that up in later years. It really gnawed at him.”
In 1952, he competed in the three-person keelboat with Don Hains and Archie Howe. They finished 10th.
His racing schedule slowed when he married in 1954 and started to raise a family, but he competed in the 1957 Royal Regatta in Montreal, and won the 1961 Ontario Snipe Championship with Hains.
Hains’ son Ted, who competed in the 1972 Munich Games, said Robertson had an enduring influence over his family. He experienced his first sailing race with Robertson in 1959.
“I was nervous, anxious and tentative,” Hains said on social media. “In the process, John encouraged me to embrace the sport. He demonstrated that there was lots to learn but that there is nothing as much fun as messing around in boats.”
Robertson had to give up competitive sailing in 1975 after a heart attack, but still sailed for enjoyment and focused on building boats. He built about 30 boats of all sizes in the basement of his Burlington home.
Robertson was inducted into the Canadian 14-foot Dinghy Hall of Fame in 2013. He was one of the first four people, including his father, inducted into the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club Hall of Fame in 2015. Robertson told The Spectator at that time the city’s harbour “spoiled” local sailors.
“He was a phenomenal resource, documenting the history of sailing in Hamilton,” added Mazza. “He and his father spanned so many years. They certainly left their mark.”
Robertson is survived by his wife of 66 years, Suzanne, daughters Elizabeth, Jane and Anne, and five grandchildren.