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 6 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 built 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 Jimmy and son Ivan sailed AVENTURA III to Alaska and British Columbia. From Vancouver the yacht was shipped to the Mediterranean. In 2006 AVENTURA III completed a five year circumnavigation. To date Jimmy Cornell has sailed 200,000 miles in all oceans of the world including three circumnavigations and voyages to Antarctica and Alaska.
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 described as the "bible of offshore sailors" as it deals with all sailing routes of the world. Now in its sixth edition, WORLD CRUISING ROUTES has been translated into German, French, Italian and Spanish. With well over 100,000 copies sold, the book is one of the best-selling nautical publications in the world. A companion volume, WORLD CRUISING HANDBOOK, had been replaced in 2010 by WORLD CRUISING DESTINATIONS that deals with all maritime nations in the world and gives details of their main attractions, facilities, formalities, practical information and charter opportunities. Jimmy Cornell is the author of over one dozen 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. The ARC is the largest transocean event in the world and one of the most successful sailing events in history. Jimmy is credited with being the founder of the cruising rally concept and, until his retirement from event organising in 1999, he had organized twenty transatlantic and five round the world rallies.
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 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. Over 50 yachts sailed in the Millennium Odyssey, making it the largest ever round the world event.
In 1999 Jimmy Cornell sold his interest in the World Cruising Club. In 2000, Jimmy Cornell launched http://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. In the intervening years noonsite has become one of the most popular websites among cruising sailors.
More information on www.jimmycornell.com
