Rod Carr talks America's Cup to madforsailing

The new secretary-general of the RYA has played an important behind-the-scenes role in making the GBR Challenge America's Cup campaign happen, he spoke to Ed Gorman

Rod, I know that the negotiations with Peter Harrison have been going on for a year or so, and there have been many turns in the road on this and several other attempts to get Britain back to the America's Cup. So what are your feelings at the very outset of this campaign now that it has launched?

My feelings at the very outset of the campaign were probably about a year ago, that's when it really started, when we set out to try and get a British challenge off the ground. There have been a number of options and different people have come and gone and expressed their interest. I think that probably the thing that turned it was Peter Harrison's long involvement with competitive sailing, which he enjoys, and also the outstanding British result at the Games. That was the point that he thought, 'yes we can do really well, we can perform creditably.' That confidence helps enormously. Your heart has got to rule it in the end and I think that's what made the difference and from then on it's been putting the pieces of the jigsaw in place.

How did the debate pan out about using our limited talent and the whole issue of balancing the Olympic campaign effort as a country, with going back to this competition, the America's Cup?

I think in reality the market rules. As our young Olympic sailors mature, although the National Lottery is a wonderful thing, they can't go on earning around £16,000-a-year including their campaign costs. While you're in your young 20s that opportunity and the ability to sail for your country and win gold medals is just fantastic, but realistically you can't live the whole of your life on that sort of basis, so it is right that these people are given the opportunity to enhance their career. Adrian Stead is a good example, OK he hasn't a medal, but he has been to the Games twice. For people like him, they've already gone down that route. So we don't have a choice is what I'm saying - this will happen. It's up to Ian Walker and John Derbyshire as the RYA's racing manager to now try and manoeuvre.

You'll notice that not all the medallists are not all involved in the campaign. That is because many of them have similar skills. Very few of them are big enough to be grinders or experienced enough to be bowmen, so they would tend to be at the back end of the boat. Yet you can only have so many people there so the fact that some of them have chosen to dip in and out, or just to pursue their Olympic thing is quite right. I'm entirely comfortable with that. I'm also comfortable with the fact that after this campaign ends, whenever it ends, there will still be some time for some of this crew to get back into an Olympic boat and perform creditably, especially if they stick to the same class. If they change class that's a tall order.

The future is bright but the actual specifics of any future campaign after this one have been left fairly vague at this stage. You must have had discussions about how this effort will tie-in or lead-on to successive efforts bearing in mind that it could take two or three of even four goes before Team GB is in a position to mount a potentially Cup-winning challenge?

Yes, we have absolutely. Right from the early days before Peter Harrison was involved personally in the whole thing, there were two goals. One: to get into the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, and secondly, to do it again. I think that one probably begets the other. I mean, if there was - I'm sure there won't be - a signal failure for any reason, then the chances of doing it again would be a lot slimmer, if not impossible. But I think if we compete with honour and creditably, which I'm sure we will, and get even as far as that, the chances are much, much better. But I think we should start from a position where everyone realises that that is what we're trying to do. All informed people know that it's a long haul and this is the start of the haul. So yes it's a goal - the goal is to do it again.

So you really believe the semis are a realistic goal this time round?

It's a tough goal really. We talk in sport about dream goals and achievable goals. Talking to Ian Walker, I think it's somewhere between the two. It's not so dream, that it's like 'oh come on', but it's a tough one, it is tough.

For Ian this is a big step. From being one of the "cheeky chappies" of British sailing, yet ironically someone who never particularly basked in the media spotlight, there are now so many different areas that he's now going to have to perform in. You know him better than anyone. He seemed very impressive today. How do you think he will handle the task Peter Harrison has set him?

I've seen Ian in a lot of difficult stressful circumstances which everyone knows about and I think he's got deep human resources. He's straight, he's honest in his dealings and he's a people person and he's also bright - he's a Cambridge graduate. I'm not worried about him really. I think that it will be very tough sometimes, seeing the wood from the trees, and dealing with the egos involved around the Cup, both within and without the team, will test him I'm sure. But I think he's up to it. I think he's got the backbone to handle it and I also think he got a small group of people around him, by that I mean his family and his wife and old friends, who he can lean on. He's not a one man band and I think that counts as well when you're under pressure.

One last question, a lot of emphasis today has been put on the new generation and aspiring to some very high ideals, which I for one am delighted to see. There are some obvious older-generation names conspicuous by their absence. Do we take it that they are not involved full stop, or is there scope to bring some of them in, by which I am meaning the Lawrie Smiths, the Chris Laws, the Eddie Warden Owens - or have we now moved on?

What was set out today is who's driving the ship, where it's going and where it's coming from with young people. I think it would be extremely arrogant not to learn from the experience of one or two people. I mean Lawrie, for instance, in my opinion, has got a feel for a big boat going to windward that few other people in the world have and I think that if he were to be prepared, from time-to-time, to come in and challenge the team about the way they were going with something or other, I think that would be great. But there is a great deal of difference in doing that in almost a coaching type of role and actually being at the core of the management. In order for the team to learn fast, it's got to make its mistakes. They are the future and they've got to draw on the other people who might have a subsidiary role. So I would never say never and I think you will see some of the older and bolder sailors around the place, but they aren't going to be in the driving seat.

Thanks a lot Rod.