The internal capitalization within IJmuiden is as IJ is a digraph in modern Dutch with an exceptional spelling convention.

In the Roman era, the district was already inhabited, and archaeological finds at the impoldered lake of Wijkermeer[3] indicate there was a North Sea port of some regional importance built here.

Before IJmuiden was built, the area was known as Breesaap, a desolate plain where a handful of farming families strove to make a living.

The IJmuiden name literally means "mouth of the IJ", which is a hint to the importance the town has for the Amsterdam harbour.

The present IJmuiden form was eventually adopted in 1876, as the North Sea Canal was being completed in this section.

[6] The entry to the canal needed constant dredging due to the littoral drift in both directions on an open, sandy coast: due to winds blowing alternately from opposite quarters, sand accumulates in the sheltered angles outside the harbour between each converging breakwater and the shore.

[7] After the German invasion of the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, the Dutch Royal family left the country from IJmuiden in the late evening of 12 May.

IJmuiden became the site of two separate fortified pens constructed by the German navy (Kriegsmarine) to house their schnellboote (fast torpedo boats, known to the Allies as E-boats)[9] and Biber midget submarines.

[9] The pens were priority targets after D-day as the torpedo boats they protected were a great threat to the supply lines serving Allied forces.

The harbour coastline remains a measuring point for the northern extremes of the equidistantly set UK-Netherlands sea boundary.

The places to see on this route are the Hoogovensmuseum, the system of sluice gates at the mouth of the canal, and the Zee- en Havenmuseum in IJmuiden.

The event covers a distance of 210 nautical miles (390 km; 240 mi) and starts in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in England and finishes in IJmuiden.