Robins' first national sailing competition was the 14 ft Championship in 1958, and his first international competition was the Sydney Sailing World Championships in 1973. He won an international Soling Class, was selected by Alan Bond to be the skipper of "Australia", the Australian challenger at the 1977 America's Cup, and was part of its crew at the 1980 America's Cup. In 1981 he skippered "Hitchhiker II", which won that year's Admiral's Cup in Cowes and the Two Ton World Championship in Porto Cervo, Sardinia. For the 1987 America's Cup, he was the Executive director of the America's Cup Defence Committee of the Royal Perth Yacht Club.