If you’re sailing from Northern Europe to the Canaries or Med next year you might well be interested in a new yacht rally, launched by Jimmy Cornell.

His European Odyssey will start in Hamburg in July 2014, before crossing to the tidal River Thames, where it will link up with the start of Cornell’s other new yacht rally, the Blue Planet Odyssey.

This gets underway at Tower Bridge, stopping on the other side of the Channel in Normandy, before making its way south in hops through France, Spain and Portugal.

From Lisbon, boats bound for the Mediterranean will sail to Gibraltar, while those bound for the Canaries will head for Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Landfall in the Canaries will be at the new Marina Lanzarote.

Cornell Sailing Events say: ‘Participants in the European Odyssey will enjoy a rich programme of local activities in all ports along the route.

‘Those who intend to cross the Atlantic later in the year will benefit from special long term discounts on docking fees in Marina Lanzarote.

‘Further incentives will be offered to those who wish to join the Atlantic Odyssey I to Martinique, starting from Lanzarote on 16 November 2014, or Atlantic Odyssey II to Grenada starting from La Palma on 9 January 2015.’

Cornell, founder of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, says he’s had the idea for decades and is excited to launch the new yacht rally, which from 2015 will expand to attain a wider European dimension by calling at every maritime nation in the European Union with scheduled starts from Istanbul, Odessa and Sevatastopol in the Black Sea, to Venice in the Adriatic and St Petersburg in the Baltic Sea.

Anyone interested in joining the European Odyssey can find out more details via the website www.europeanodyssey.org or by emailing info@cornellsailing.com

In the last three decades, Jimmy Cornell had organized 20 transatlantic rallies, four round the world rallies and one round the world race, with more than 3,000 boats and 15,000 sailors taking part. His Blue Planet Odyssey aims to raise awareness of the global effects of climate change.