Dolphins alongside a QBE cutter off the Breton coast

It’s not uncommon for us (and other sailors) to be escorted by pods of dolphins. People who study marine life seem to have differing opinions why they do this. Some speculate they’re able to expend less energy by slipstreaming—i.e., they’re wanting to hitch a free ride. Others opine that dolphins are very curious animals: they simply want to check out any large floating projectile not found in nature, see who’s on it and what they’re doing. Whatever the reason, a dolphin escort is always a source of tremendous excitement for the crew. We’re advised not to feed dolphins day-old pizza or… well, anything at all. In fact, it’s illegal.

A dolphin pod escorting a QBE sailing expedition (July 2022)

Going, Going...

We’re halfway through the month of May and our August expedition is just about sold out. We do still have places available on our July expedition. If you’d like to join us, book your place now.

Book your place(s) now for our summer 2022 expeditions

After two years serving as a quayside tourist attraction in St-Malo, our boats are now being refitted to sail next summer. Come join us—we only have 12 available places per expedition.

Maybe Paris’s best summer job. And QBE doing its part for St-Malo tourism

A reliable source once told us that the Paris Tourist Board pays (or used to pay) young couples to make out on city benches every summer to provide some romantic ambiance for the throngs of visitors that relentlessly descend on the city, a great job if you can get it. (We can't verify that our information is true, but it sounds like something the “Office Tourism And Convention De Paris [sic]” might do. After all, Disney pays youngsters to dress up as various characters in their theme parks. It seems to work for them, so why not?)
Well, being the civic-minded Malouin denizens we are, we try to provide a similar public service. When people think of St-Malo, they often think of sailing. So we park our eye-popping pilot cutters right alongside the quay for passers-by to gawk at. And they do. Constantly. We wish we had a euro for every time somebody has stood beside one of our boats, smart phone in hand, to pose for for a selfie.

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful...”

…but the boats are so delightful. and since we’ve no place to go [yet], let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

We got a lot of the white stuff this week, which is unusual. The trick is to make sure that no water seeps into small cracks on the decks and then freezes.

Sailing in style. Spend a few weeks pretending you're Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn.

Does style matter anymore? Well, it should. Beautiful hand-made things, original art, magnificent old churches, and walks through beautifully landscaped gardens nourish the soul. Which brings us to our boats. QBE owns two Insta-worthy pilot cutters, handsome single-masted boats that have been called the best sailboats ever designed because of their seaworthiness, maneuverability, and ease of handling. If we weren’t using our cutters to teach, we’d probably be renting them to film production companies. They really are remarkable yachts. And they’re perfect for showing teens the ropes—the ones they use to trim the sails and others they’ll use throughout life. There are a number of sailing courses available to high-school students. Some of them appear to be very good. A few have the benefit of cruising clear, tropical waters and exploring the reefs that lie beneath the surface. But few of them offer the European cultural component we do. And none that we can find offer boats like ours, because, well, because there just aren’t many boats like ours. QBE sailing is about character development, history, culture, and old-school style. You should join us and spend a few weeks pretending you’re Katherine Hepburn or Cary Grant (or, if you’re not old enough to know who they are, Léa Seydoux/Idris Elba) on a great European adventure. How many chances will you get?

When it comes to building self-confidence, we would seem to come in no better than second. We'll take it.

In his acclaimed book An Intimate History of Humanity, Oxford historian Theodore Zeldin asserts that the most effective way to boost self confidence is to see somebody you’re in love with reciprocate your feelings. But if you do an internet search, you’ll find the following advice:

1. Stop criticizing yourself. 2. Devote your life towards looking for the best in yourself and in others. 3. Look good so you can feel good. 4. Get out of your comfort zone and succeed.

The first two tips are “voluntary mortifications”—part of a discipline one practices every day. Now let’s consider the second two items. 1) Looking good. This is one of the reasons we sail fabulous out-of-the-ordinary gaff-rig boats. Apart from being the perfect size for QBE teaching methods, being extremely safe, and being challenging enough to require teamwork to sail, they are eye-poppingly handsome yachts. When we come sailing into port, heads turn. You can’t help but feel cool when you show up someplace special standing on the deck of an iconic pilot cutter. And 2) Comfort zone and success. The whole point of adventure is getting out of your comfort zone. Sailing, for beginners, is a new zone altogether. Our crewmates are quickly given complete responsibility for our expeditions. They take turns tugging at ropes, skippering, and navigating (among other things). By the end of the course, they will have crossed the English Channel and repeatedly brought their boats alongside quays in postcard ports. They successfully will have done what few of their friends will ever have the chance to do, and they’ll have the pictures to prove it. Talk about a boost in self-esteem!

It's Experience That Makes The Difference.

Albert Einstein once quipped that an education is what remains after you forget everything you learned in the classroom. At QBE (Qualified By Experience), we try to keep sailing instruction to a minimum and let crew members learn the ropes by themselves. That includes navigation. We teach participants how to do it, but then it’s up to them to chart their courses. Given a number of choices based on tides, wind, and weather, crew members decide where they want to go and how to get there. Sometimes, things go pear-shaped. For example, once in the Mediterranean, a crew set out for St-Tropez, in France, and wound up instead in Sanremo, in Italy. Mistakes happen. But everybody learned something about nautical navigation that day.

We use the boats we use because they are small enough for neophytes to sail without a lot of hands-on supervision. Of course, an instructor/skipper is always on hand to make sure the boat and crew are never in danger—and to answer questions—but our crew members are largely on their own after a few days of orientation. In fact, one of the biggest challenges we face is getting our skippers to shut up, stand back, and avoid the temptation to “over-teach.” When people learn by experience, they tend not to forget the lessons they learn.

Living an Interesting Life

The Week recently posted an article by Eric Barker, the well-known blogger ("Barking Up The Wrong Tree").  The title: Seven ways to be the most interesting person in the room. Now, "interesting" need not imply narcissism or snobbery. It simply helps people avoid being a bore, which apart from anything else is an essential ingredient in the stew we call good manners. And, of course, it includes the imperative to be interested in others, as well. Eric concludes his piece:

And most importantly: Live an interesting life.
Remember the theme of Don Quixote: If you want to be a knight, act like a knight. If you don't read, watch, and think about generic things, generic things are less likely to come out of your mouth. This doesn't need to be expensive or difficult. Hang out more often with the most interesting people you know. The friends you spend time with dramatically affect your behavior — whether you like it or not. The Longevity Project, which studied over 1000 people from youth to death had this to say: The groups you associate with often determine the type of person you become. In The Start-up of You, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha talk about how the best way to improve particular qualities in yourself is to spend time with people who are already like that. The best and most reliable way to appear interesting is to live an interesting life. [Emphasis ours] And to pursue that ends up being far more rewarding than merely making a good impression on others. [Though being somewhat impressive can give a major boost to your self-image and confidence.]

Hmmm. Sometime in your late teens sounds like a good time to start embarking on great adventures in interesting places with interesting people—adventures that will shape your character for the rest of your life.