Long Biography

Jimmy Cornell was born in Romania in 1940. He grew up  in Brasov and later attended Bucharest University where he studied economics.  With his British wife Gwenda, he moved to London in 1969. He took up sailing  while working as a reporter for the BBC World Service in London. In 1974 Jimmy Cornell fitted out himself a 36 foot fibreglass hull (a Trintella III, van de  Stadt design – the first AVENTURA). In 1975 he left England with Gwenda and  their two children (Doina 7 and Ivan 5) on a world voyage lasting six years,  which took them to some 70 countries and totalled 68,000 miles. During the  voyage Jimmy Cornell sent back regular radio reports to the BBC World Service.

A second AVENTURA (Bill Dixon design, 12 metre/40 feet  in steel) was launched in 1989 and completed a circumnavigation between 1989  and 1992, some of which was part of the first round the world rally organized  by Jimmy between 1991 and 1992

AVENTURA III (an OVNI 43 designed by Philippe Briand  and built in France) was launched in May 1998 and sailed in 1999 to  Antarctica.  From there AVENTURA III  sailed to Alaska and British Columbia, and was shipped back to the  Mediterranean. In 2001 Jimmy started his third circumnavigation of the world  which he completed in 2006. To date Jimmy Cornell has sailed in close to  200,000 miles in all oceans of the world, including three circumnavigations and  two voyages to Antarctica.

In his writing, Jimmy Cornell decided to tackle the  various aspects of sailing and offshore cruising in a systematic way, and he  conducted extensive surveys with cruising sailors in all oceans of the world, dealing with every aspect of voyaging under sail.

Jimmy Cornell’s reputation as a writer on cruising  matters was consolidated by the publication in 1987 of World Cruising Routes,  which became an international best-seller, and has been translated into French,  German, Spanish and Italian. Now in its sixth edition, World Cruising Routes has sold over 150,000 copies and is one of the best-selling nautical publications  in the world.

Jimmy Cornell is the author of 16 books, which have  been translated into several languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian,  Romanian and Japanese.

In 1986 Cornell launched and organised the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. As a  result of the success of the first ARC he founded the World Cruising Club which specialises in international sailing events. Between 1986 and 2000, Jimmy  organized five round the world rallies, the America 500 Columbus anniversary  rally in 1992, the Hong Kong Challenge round the world race in 1996 as well as  the annual ARC transatlantic rally. Jimmy sold his interest in World Cruising Club and ceased  his activity as sailing event organiser in 2000.

Jimmy Cornell’s most ambitious project was the  Millennium Odyssey round the world rally, which started in August 1998 to  celebrate the new millennium. The round the world rally, which was sponsored by  the Government of the Canary Islands, finished in Rome in April 2000, when the  Millennium Flame, that had been lit in Jerusalem and had been carried around  the world by the yachts sailing in the rally, was handed over to Pope John Paul  II in Rome on Easter Monday 2000. Fifty yachts sailed in the Millennium  Odyssey, making it the largest ever round the world event.

In December 2000, Jimmy Cornell launched www.noonsite.com, a website dedicated to cruising sailors.  The website contains practical information on all maritime nations of the world  and is considered an essential source of information by thousands of cruising  sailors. Noonsite is now one of the most successful sailing sites on the  internet and attracts on average over one million hits per month.

In 2007 Jimmy wrote and published A Passion for the  Sea, Reflections on three Circumnavigations. The book is based on Jimmy  Cornell’s extensive knowledge of offshore cruising gained both from his personal experience that stretches over more than three decades and three  circumnavigations. The book deals with all essential aspects of offshore  cruising and every specific subject is dealt with in an informative and  entertaining manner, backed up by some telling incident from the author’s  wide-ranging practical experience.

In 2010 Jimmy wrote World Cruising Destinations, which  gives practical information on 184 maritime nations. Jimmy’s World Cruising Series will be completed by two more companion volumes to World Cruising  Routes: an Ocean Atlas of pilot charts (November 2011) and World Voyage  Planner, due for publication in 2012.

Books by Jimmy Cornell

English language editions (UK and USA):

Foreign language editions:

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