Around the world sailing record

By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.

The dominant winds and currents (outside tropical areas) make the voyage eastwards on the Southern hemisphere faster, most skippers and yachts who race prefer this route.

Leisure yacht skippers who prefer tropical seas more often go westward, using the trade winds (and the Panama Canal).

[3] WSSRC rules state that qualifying round-the-world voyages must be at least 21,600 nmi long, calculated along the shortest possible track from the starting port and back that does not cross land and does not go below 63°S.

[4] In reality, this means that the boat should pass a waypoint at or not far from the antipode of the starting port of the journey (the exact position depends on how short the shortest possible track is).

[citation needed] Only 6 sailors achieved the Westward route facing the dominant winds and currents.

Mike Golding and Dee Caffari both set WSSRC Westbound world records using Global Challenge boats and also finishing the Eastbound Vendee Globe Race.