The 2018 Cruising Seminar Week in Marina Lanzarote kicked off with a convivial evening on Monday 12th where Jimmy recounted his successful voyage through the Northwest Passage. An international crowd attended the talk and were delighted to meet Jimmy in person. 

Seminars over the following days included topics such as routing beyond the Caribbean and how climate change can affect voyage planning. The visit ended in a relaxed open forum sharing advice and experiences where visiting cruisers had a hundred questions for Jimmy, covering routing, energy production onboard, communications and of course recommended equipment. He answered each in turn, often adding amusing anecdotes based on his many years’ cruising around the world. 

Jimmy also related how years of organising events had afforded him the singular opportunity to assess concepts and systems aboard thousands of different boats. Combined with significant personal sailing experience, he was then able coalesce all of this knowledge in the design of a new vessel – the Garcia Exploration 45, employing numerous tried and tested ideas such as a rudder that incorporates a shock-impact sacrificial section to avoid irreparable damage to the stock and a lifting keel that permits anchoring in shallow water and comfortable downside sailing rough seas.

He encouraged visiting sailors to spend at least the next couple of months in the Canaries; describing the archipelago as “an oasis of peace and tranquillity” where increasingly, certain other popular destinations were becoming exposed to political insecurity or climate instability.

Jimmy Cornell remains one of the very few “gurus” of offshore cruising; a sailor with both a prodigious amount of experience and a profound gift for communication. On behalf of Lava Charter and Lava Chandlers we are very grateful for his visit and hope that he returns to Lanzarote!

• Find out more about Cornell Sailing on their website: cornellsailing.com
• Seize the chance to obtain one of the remaining signed copies of “200,000 Miles” and “Ocean Atlas” at Lava Chandlers in Marina Lanzarote: shop@lavacharter.com

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