Marriage is a lot like racing a sailboat; the conditions aren’t always perfect, but with good communication and grace under pressure you’ll likely get where you want to go. Sound like a stretch? Spend an afternoon with Madeline and Reed Baldridge and the parallels become clear. The Charleston, South Carolina-based couple—each champion sailors in their own right—sat down with us to talk sailing, sail design, and the state of the sport today, but ultimately taught us valuable lessons about life on land.

“The biggest part of what we do,” Mr. Baldridge tells us, “is making personal connections.” Forced to work together under unpredictable circumstances, successful sailors are those who manage the best from each other and make respective strengths and weaknesses complementary. “The team aspect,” he says, “is something that’s really cool. Learning to trust your teammates and earn their respect under the pressure of competition is unique and rewarding.

Each having sailed since childhood, the Baldridges—now in their 30s—know more than most about being part of a winning team. Madeline, a gold medal-toting member of the U.S. Sailing Team, finished first in the 2023 Pan American Games. Her husband did the same in last year’s Waszp U.S. National Championship. One may ask, then, whether sailing becomes easier with time.

“That’s a good question,” says Madeline, one of the industry’s few female sail designers and a Norwalk, Connecticut native. “I guess it’s gotten more comfortable, and I’m used to it. But it’s still always challenging in a way that keeps me interested.” Participating in up to 35 regattas a year, the couple—one of notably few in sailing—competes both with and against one another, helping contribute, no doubt, to that sustained interest. “I’m definitely learning more about how [Reed’s] brain works under pressure,” she tells us. “He is really good at staying calm in high pressure situations in a way that does not come as naturally to me” Whether the waves and windstorms we face are literal or figurative, we all encounter variables beyond our control. Might self-possession be one’s most precious asset?

“If you can keep a level head,fix the problem quickly, and move on to the next situation, results will follow,” says Reed. Combining efforts helps, too. “I’m very shy and introverted,” Mrs. Baldridge says, “and he’s very extroverted and social. He encourages me to hang out…to speak more confidently…and I think I conversely help him with logistical planning and…to realize the importance of…prioritizing goals and purposeful decision making.”

Just as important a key to their success is the desire to keep learning. “I get to sail with different people on different boats in different venues all the time…,” says Madeline, “[from whom] I can learn a little bit [about] how to be better prepared next time.” It’s also crucial to make room for one another’s mistakes, Reed adds. “After experiencing a fwide range of conditions and circumstances…you realize nobody’s sailing a perfect race,” he says. “Nobody’s nailing it all the time.”

On the water as much as 250 days a year, often in unforgiving weather, sailing, not unlike marriage, requires all the time, energy, and emotional intelligence Reed and Madeline Baldridge can muster. What keeps them coming back? Reed says of the sport. “Why would I do something else—that I don’t absolutely love?”