JIMMY CORNELL'S ZER0 CARBON CRUISER

THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIC, SAYS CRUISING GURU JIMMY CORNELL. HE’S BUILDING AN ELECTRIC CATAMARAN FOR A CIRCUMNAVIGATION WITHOUT FOSSIL FUELS

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In 2010 I sold my [Ovni 43] Aventura III and, as I was 70, I felt the time had come to call it quits. That didn’t last long though and, by 2013, with accelerating climate change increasingly making the news for those who were prepared to listen, I decided to get another boat, A and attempt to transit the North West Passage.

Described by scientists as the ‘canary in the coalmine’ of global climate, whatever happens there eventually spreads to the rest of the world. I did manage to transit this once impenetrable waterway, now opening up due to the consequences of climate change. I also saw the effects of global warming on the local population.

With that mission accomplished, in 2017 I sold Aventura IV and that was it... But not for long, as three years later, with climate change surpassing the worst predictions, I decided to put retirement on hold for a bit longer and try something completely different. Such as sailing around the world on a fully electric boat along the route of the first circumnavigation 500 years previously.

Once again, the main reason for this decision was my profound concern for the state of the environment and especially that of the oceans.

During my first world voyage between 1975 and 1981 I was fortunate to visit many places whose nature was still in the pristine state it had been since they were settled.

I’ve returned to many of those places in the intervening years and almost everywhere, from Tuvalu to Alaska, have been shocked to witness the destructive processes caused by the change in climatic conditions.