Phil Sharp

Phil Sharp (born 11 May 1981) is a British yachtsman. He was born in Jersey (Channel Islands), educated at Victoria College Jersey and qualified from Imperial College London with an MSc in Mechanical Engineering. Sharp holds World Speed Sailing Records. and Guinness World Records for the Cowes-to-Dinard monohull under 60 ft singlehanded (set in 2016), and crewed around Britain and Ireland under 40 ft (set in 2018).

Racing a 2013 Manuard Mach 2 design under the name Imerys [fr], Sharp won the Class40 ocean racing Championship in 2017 with title sponsor Imerys.

In 2006, Sharp won the Route du Rhum single-handed race from St Malo, Brittany, to Guadeloupe aboard a Class40 and is entered for the 2018 edition [fr]. In 2016, Sharp lost his lead in the single-handed Transat Bakerly [fr] (Plymouth, UK – New York, US) after his mainsail shredded in a storm. Sharp made a temporary repair and finished the race in 3rd place.

Sharp is a mechanical engineering specialist in high-performance composite structural design. He engineered a 43-metre (141 ft) wind turbine through his time at Blade Dynamics on the Isle of Wight and three carbon-fibre booms at Future Fibres in Valencia, Spain. Sharp designed what is (as at August 2018) the largest yacht in the world, A. The £260 million superyacht has a length of 144 metres (473 ft) and a gross tonnage of 12,558.

Sharp is a member of the Royal Cruising Club and Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club. He is a founder of PS Racing Ltd, a sports-management company which is developing a hydrogen-electric system to replace the diesel engine with the objective to complete the Vendée Globe single-handed non-stop race around the world with zero fossil fuels.

• 2018: Monohull (crewed, up to 40 feet) for the Round Britain and Ireland. Starting on 12 August 2018, the distance of 1,773 nautical miles (3,284 km; 2,040 mi) sailed was covered at an average speed of 9.03 knots (16.72 km/h; 10.39 mph) in 8 days, 4 hours, 14 minutes.
• 2016: Monohull and multihull (single-handed up to 60 feet) for the Channel (Cowes, Isle of Wight – Dinard, Brittany). The route distance of 138 nautical miles (256 km; 159 mi) was covered on 24 November in 9 hours 3 minutes with an average speed of 15.25 knots (28.24 km/h; 17.55 mph) 15.25 kn (28.24 km/h).