Trimming the Fails

Three years. Three oceans. Thirty thousand nautical miles. And THREE strikes.

In May 2022, Paul and Meg Britton sold their house, packed their lives into a 20-foot storage unit, and flew to Cape Town to take delivery of a new catamaran named Rodeless. Neither of them had ever lived aboard.

What followed was not the brochure version. There were champagne days on a beam reach and idyllic sunsets off the bow. There were also 40-knot winds and 20-foot waves in the North Sea, a shredded spinnaker in the mid-Atlantic, orcas attacking sailboats off the Iberian coast, and other surprises from Mother Nature along the way.

Meg's rule was simple: THREE strikes and Rodeless would be sold.

Trimming the Fails is an honest account of what is required to chase a dream - the preparation, the fear, the seamanship, the marriage, and the grace that carried them home.

Trim your sails. Trim your fails. Persevere.

Paul S. Britton is a USCG-licensed Merchant Mariner and a petroleum engineer who spent thirty years building energy projects around the world before trading the boardroom for the cockpit. He and his wife, Meg, sailed their Balance 482 catamaran Rodeless more than 30,000 nautical miles across three oceans. They live on land again - for now.