The course is very simple as the only constraint is to go round the British islands (England, Scotland and Ireland) no matter which way and where the start is as long as the trip is at least 1787 nautical miles. According to several historians, Pythéas, an explorer from Marseille, was the first one to go round the British islands 400BC. But it is Steve Fossett which will relaunch this record somehow acrobatic because of the heavy seas, the wind and tide shifts, the weather systems and of course the heavy maritime traffic! In 1994, he established a new record of 5d 21hrs aboard his 60ft trimaran Lakota which use to belong to Florence Arthaud when she won the Route du Rhum in 1990.
Several attempts will be made like the maxicat Orange in august 2002 (Bruno Peyron) which will fail to break the record trapped in the light winds just before the finish. Maiden II, which started the same time as Geronimo, beat the record by 5hrs. Still in 2002, Steve Fossett retake its property with Playstation and make a new reference time of 4d and 16hrs!