“What’s cool right now...” (according to GQ magazine)

A QBE pilot cutter in Saint-Malo Bay.

We came across this the other day and thought we’d pass it along, just FYI:

What’s Cool Right Now, According to Stylish People With Great Taste

What should you wear? How should you smell? Where should you be eating? Or vacationing? You might never know without The GQ Hype List, a super-specific, deeply personal, earth-spanning guide to what’s cool right this very minute.

[…] 4. Sailing on Your Lunch Break

Every Tuesday, [interior magazine Apartamento cofounder Nacho Alegre] leaves his office in Barcelona around one, bikes to the sea, hops in his five-meter dinghy—which he bought secondhand for just a couple thousand euros—and races out on the glimmering Mediterranean. “And then I’m back in the office by 3:30,” he says. Alegre doesn’t quite understand why sailing isn’t more popular. “It’s pretty physical,” he says, and cheaper than you might think. Not too long ago, he notes, all of his friends started rock climbing, “like everywhere in the world.” There’s no reason, he says, why sailing couldn’t become the next big craze.

QBE July 2022 Expedition update—Lorient, France

When in France, one should eat what the French eat—with perhaps some extra whipped cream. Here we are in Lorient today, chowing down on crêpes.

Getting ready for the season

St-Malo, France. Wednesday 18 May, 2022: A bird’s-eye view of one of our pilot cutters. Between now and July, we’re working flat-out to get our boats ready for the season—new electronics, new varnish, new rope, new life boats, new paint, and soon—some lucky new crew members!

(“… Now, how do I get down?”)

“Boutique” Teen Sailing Expeditions

QBE is what people these days would call a “boutique” sailing program(me): small, lots of personal attention, and “unique selling points (USPs).“ Our boats are very much old-school chic. Our European destinations are right out of a Rizzoli® coffee-table book. And our expeditions are largely organized by crew members who take ownership of most of the everyday tasks, including navigating and taking turns at the helm. We even give our crews the latitude to get lost! (Yes, we have GPS, but that doesn’t mean we let our teens use it.)

Come to think of it, QBE is a bit like the small school in the Swiss Alps where our founder, investors, and volunteers all first met. The views were spectacular. We organized our own mountain expeditions. And the houses/dorms were old converted hotels that oozed charm but needed occasional roof repairs*.

Our pilot cutters are far from state-of-the-art, but they were solidly built by an artisan boatwright a number of years ago, using a 19th-century design. We think they significantly upgrade our value proposition. They are wonderful to sail, very steady in choppy seas, and eye-popping to look at, whether tied up by the quay or cutting through the water at full sail. As an additional plus, our director, Will Sutherland, is a world-class sailing coach and experienced high-school expeditions master. When it comes to premium personal-development and summer enrichment for youngsters, you can’t do better.

*For clarification, our boats DO NOT leak.