Tiger Love: Engineering alumni are sailing into retirement

Michael and Suzanne Pail met as engineering undergraduates during a first-year chemistry class. Since then, the two have kept a personal chemistry as engineers, business owners, and now shipmates sailing the ocean on Mira, their double-hull catamaran.

After more than 25 successful years in industry and as entrepreneurs, they retired early in 2021 and made the catamaran home and the ocean their neighborhood.

“It’s a great way to see the world, to immerse ourselves in different cultures. And we’re able to come back to our home every night,” Suzanne said.

After graduation, Suzanne ’98 (mechanical engineering) worked as a project manager for nine years at IBM in Raleigh, N.C. Michael ’98 (electrical engineering) was at IBM for two years before going to a smaller company nearby.

But they both had an entrepreneurial spirit that they couldn’t quash. In 2006, they opened a Closet Factory location, a custom closet and accessories franchise.

“It was more Mike’s venture as I was still at IBM at the time,” said Suzanne, who would help during off hours. “But when he started the business, he threw himself into it hard.”

After about a year, they switched roles. Michael headed back to engineering in product sales and consulting and Suzanne took the helm at the franchise.

“Sue was much better at juggling tasks,” Michael said. “She was really good at time management and balancing priorities. She was also ready for a change.”

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Michael and Suzanne Pail met as engineering undergraduates.

Both were trying to manage 60-plus hours a week. Their business was thriving; the economy was stable enough to consider selling their franchise and looking toward early retirement.

They had been thinking about early retirement since Michael’s father passed away at the age of 47 when Michael was a student at RIT.

“It did give us the awareness that you can put all this time in, save for retirement, work really hard, and sometimes you just don’t get to retirement,” Michael said. “So, for us our goal was to retire by age 47, and we were able to.”

They sold their business and moved to South Africa in early 2022 with four bags of clothes and some belongings, like a laptop. For the next five months, they lived in Knysna and visited the factory to watch their catamaran being built.

They picked a sailing catamaran because it was more energy efficient, had larger living space and modern amenities like air conditioning, a washer/dryer, and a desalination system to make their own water. The catamaran generates 3,000 watts of solar power and has a 21-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery bank to store all that power.

“And we have Starlink so we can stay connected to the world…and keep an eye on the weather and our routes,” Suzanne said.

Living on a boat can be challenging, even as engineers. Breakdowns occur and often new parts can only be found at distant ports.

Since leaving South Africa, they have crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Grenada, which took 38 days, explored the Caribbean—Puerto Rico, Guadelupe, Martinique, Dominica—and sailed the northern U.S. coastline.

They map their travels through their vlog “On a New Tack,” where they share adventures and post photos of places that most just dream about. They are looking toward sailing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean to explore French Polynesia this spring as the next step in their travels.

They will do this until they decide not to or find an ideal island to settle upon, said Michael. He and Suzanne crossed another milestone in 2025—they both turned 50.

“We do have long-term plans, but we always say, ‘Everything is in pencil.’ There is no rush,” Michael said. “We love the idea of seeing different places this way.”