Jimmy Cornell

– Sailing icon and best-selling author –

 

Jimmy Cornell was born in Romania in 1940. He grew up in Brasov and attended the German Honterus-Gymnasium there. He later studied economics at the University of Bucharest. In 1969 he moved to London with his British wife Gwenda. He began sailing while working as a reporter for the BBC World Service in London.

In 1974, Jimmy Cornell outfitted a 36-foot fiberglass yacht (Trintella III, Van de Stadt design – the first Aventura).

In 1975 he left England with Gwenda and their children (Doina, 7 and Ivan, 5) and embarked on a six-year trip around the world that took them to around 70 countries and covered 68,000 nautical miles. During the trip, Jimmy Cornell sent regular radio reports to BBC World Service and freelanced for various magazines and radio stations.

In his books, Jimmy Cornell systematically deals with various aspects of sailing. Over the years he has conducted extensive studies and surveys on all aspects of cruising with blue water sailors on all oceans.
Articles about his studies have appeared in leading sailing magazines and have served as valuable sources for his books.
Jimmy Cornell's reputation as a cruising author rests on World Cruising Routes, which was published in 1987 and became an international bestseller. The book has been translated into French, German, Spanish and Italian.
It went through eight editions and 200,000 copies were sold. This makes it one of the best-selling nautical books in the world. Thousands of sailors have since made their bluewater sailing dreams come true with the help of Jimmy Cornell's books.

Jimmy Cornell has written a total of 17 books and his work has been translated into several languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian and Japanese.

As the founder of the highly successful transatlantic rally ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), Jimmy Cornell is the originator of the blue water rally concept. Over the last three decades, Jimmy has organized 38 transatlantic rallies, five around the world rallies and one around the world regatta. Over 3,000 boats and 15,000 sailors have taken part in its events.

 

"From my first book, my goal was to
write the kind of books I wanted to read
when we set out on our first journey."

Jimmy Cornell