Carr Quits Rya Ahead Of London 2012

Rod Carr is to retire from his post as chief executive of the Royal Yachting Association in March 2010, only two years before the London 2012 Olympic regatta in Weymouth.

When he retires, Carr will have been at the RYA for 25 years including 10 as chief executive, having started as dinghy coach to the Olympic team for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when Britain earned a solitary bronze medal.

Under his regime, Britain has finished the last three Olympic Games as the world’s top sailing nation, with a record four gold medals won at Beijing 2008 including a third for Ben Ainslie, one of Carr’s early charges when he was coach in Atlanta 1996.

His decision to leave before London 2012 has taken the sailing community by surprise but having established a strong organisational structure at the RYA, he claimed there was little more to do in his current post.

A working group has now been set up at the RYA’s headquarters in Hamble to find a replacement.