An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir April 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 30 | BY COMDT BARRY BYRNE L ast summer a Defence Forces sailing team won four divi- sions in the Volvo Round Ireland race, finishing first of the non-professional teams, and second overall, out of an international fleet of 56. They also successfully defended the highly competitive Beaufort Cup, winning the Fastnet Offshore race with line honours in the process. Comdt Barry Byrne tells how the newly assembled team achieved their success. Professional sailors in the fleet have said that the two days of near gale force headwinds that the Volvo Round Ireland fleet encountered for the entire West Coast leg were some of the worst sailing conditions they had ever experienced. Conditions were so bad that many retired, and one team had an experi- enced crewmember thrown overboard by a violent wave in the middle of the night. It was in these conditions that our team ventured furthest west, into the strongest winds and worst conditions. Add to this a complete electrical instrument failure, and a diesel leak that permeated every inch of the boat, resulting in the crew being violently seasick and unable to eat for 48 hours. In this environment teamwork was key. Half of the team that competed in the Volvo Round Ireland and Beaufort Cup had never sailed together before, and we had very little time to put together a campaign aimed at win- ning two of Ireland's premier competitions. For this we used military principles. Plans are nothing, but planning is everything It may be true that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but if you have been through an effective plan- ning process, it will stand to you. To that end we used the military decision-making process and mission analysis; essentially breaking down the mission by factor, deduction and task. This helped in allocating clear areas of responsi- bility and job ownership. Focused training Training to be completed in such a short timeframe had to be very specific. Every training session had a clearly defined goal and ended with after-action reviews. We also enlisted the help of a professional coach, Mark Mansfield, who assisted with focus and direction, and was a valuable source of knowledge on boat set up and the Cork coastal area. Logistics Much of the preparation involved getting the boat and team ready. Getting to the start line of a Cat 3 offshore race is a marathon in itself. Clearly defined areas of responsibility (which emerged from our mission analysis) were key. One secret weapon our team had was Flt Sgt Adrian Mulligan, an aircraft technician, who leads much of the boat preparation, particularly regarding instruments. Unfortunately, Adrian suffered a back injury prior to the race, but, exemplifying DF values of loyalty and selflessness, instead of dropping off the campaign he increased his contribution sho- reside to compensate for being unable to sail, and brought an- other technical member of our crew, Capt Wietse Buwalda (CIS), up to speed with the boat's instrumentation and power systems. This was later to prove vital in our success on the water. Sgt Paddy McGrath and Lt Richie O'Hagan focused on nutri- tion, food and water, ensuring we had the exactly right amount of high-energy, military ration pack food. Mission command Mission command means picking the right person for a job and telling them what needs to be done, but not how to do it. Capt Mick Liddy (retd) was our navigator and my brief to him was to win the Round Ireland… beyond this, I didn't second-guess him. Even when we were further west than any other team, in the worst weather, I'm glad to say I managed to keep my mouth shut! A team in the last Volvo Ocean Race fell foul of the skipper and navi- gator second-guessing each other and ultimately slowed down. Joker 2 takes part in the 2018 Beaufort Cup. Photo: David Branigan/Oceansport Lead to Sailing Successes Sports in association with Teamware.ie

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