Offshore cruising seminars by Jimmy Cornell:

Long Distance Cruising (6 hours)

Seminar’s syllabus
• Planning an offshore voyage starting from US east or west coast and sailing to the Caribbean, Panama, Mexico, or Hawaii … and all the way around the world. Routing suggestions, weather routing, prevailing wind patterns, tropical storm areas and seasons, climate change and its possible effects.
• Main voyage planning considerations: Heavy weather, safety concerns and piracy, common breakages, dealing with emergencies.
• Practical aspects of long distance cruising: Downwind sails, cruising in the tropics, cruising around the world in stages, yacht transport.
• Offshore routines: Life on board, daily routines including meals, maintenance, downwind sails, cruising in the tropics, self steering gears and autopilots, provisions, fuel and water, electricity consumption and generation, watch systems, fishing, diving and photography.
• The main factors that can affect the outcome of a voyage: Essential features on an offshore cruising boat, financial considerations, crew and problems that should be avoided, cruising couples, self-sufficiency, the right attitude: from dreams to reality.
• Questions and answers
What some attendees are saying
Incredible story to tell. The photos and explanations were great. It was wonderful to hear, see and meet an icon like Jimmy Cornell.
Brilliant speaker – The seminar was impressive in so many ways.
Jimmy Cornell is a great speaker. Lots of excellent information, descriptions and photos. This seminar was the original reason I attended the boat show.
What an incredible experience to be mentored on our forthcoming trip by the man who has written the guides we’ve lived by for years.
I am a novice sailor with dreams of long distance cruising. Everything in your seminar was new to me, I learned so much!
“Great! Very interesting! Time flew!” –Jay and Dena Morgan
Would I recommend this seminar? — Absolutely!
Great seminar! Very interesting, the time flew!
Wow! I loved the stories.
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Pacific Marathon: Antarctica to Alaska (1 hour)

This tale begins with a cruise in Antarctica and takes us 15,000 miles north to Alaska. Having already crossed the Pacific twice from east to west, Jimmy decided to fulfill a long nurtured wish of sailing from one extreme of that great ocean to the other. With son Ivan as crew, the epic journey was accomplished in just four months so as to take best advantage of sailing conditions on both sides of the equator. Along the way they landed at Cape Horn, navigated the Chilean Canals, stopped at Easter Island, Pitcairn, the Gambier, Austral and Society Islands, the Line and Hawaiian Islands before finally reaching Alaska.
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World Cruising Today (1 hour)
An overview of the current global cruising scene with particular emphasis on the current concerns among sailors planning a longer voyage (personal safety, piracy, climate change, economic uncertainty), what can be done to avoid them and still enjoy the unique rewards provided by the opportunity of sailing the world on your own boat. Also an analysis of current sailing trends and the global movement of cruising boats, with specific numbers of boats in any of the more popular cruising destinations. Questions and answers.
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Pilot Charts: Every Sailor’s Friend (1 hour)

For many years pilot chart have been the most important aid for voyage planning. For the last 150 years navigators have been using them for route planning and in spite of the advances in weather forecasting and the availability of weather information while on passage, their importance has not diminished. They are still the only means of route planning to take best advantage of favorable weather conditions. Monthly pilot charts for each ocean depict mean wind direction and speed, ocean currents, tracks of tropical storms, location of high pressure cells, thus providing all essential information for planning a voyage during the safest seasons and most favorable sailing conditions.
Jimmy Cornell will describe the history of this, the passage-maker best friend, and discuss the impact of the current climate changes on the data contained in the current pilot charts. To present as true a picture as possible of the actual conditions which prevail in today’s oceans, Jimmy Cornell has created Cornell’s Ocean Atlas. The pilot charts in this comprehensive atlas are based on extensive data collected by meteorological satellites from 1987 to the present.
What some attendees are saying
We flew in at 1:00 a.m. this morning from CA [to Miami] simply to attend Msr. Cornell’s talk @ 1400 about Pilot Charts, as we plan to sail from Ft. Lauderdale to BDA mid-March. The pilot charts updated by Jimmy and his son, Ivan, w/ NASA & NOA info will be invaluable. What an incredible experience to be mentored on our forthcoming trip by the man who has written the guides we’ve lived by for years.
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Highlights of a Sailing Life (1 hour)
An undisputed authority on long distance voyaging, Jimmy Cornell has sailed 200,000 miles on all the oceans of the world, including three circumnavigations and voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic. With stunning photographs and inspirational stories, Jimmy Cornell shares highlights of a remarkable sailing life: from his first circumnavigation with his wife and two children where his job as a roving reporter for the BBC caused him to seek out stories in some of the most remote corners of the world, to the two visits to Antarctica where his excellent photographs document the incredible wildlife and scenery, to the transatlantic and round-the-world rallies that he organised.
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Planning Your Dream Voyage (1.5 hours)

Around the World in Eighty Minutes:
Planning an offshore voyage starting from US east or west coast and sailing to the Caribbean, Panama, Mexico, or Hawaii … and all the way around the world. Routing suggestions, weather routing, prevailing wind patterns, tropical storm areas and seasons, climate change and its possible effects.
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