The crew repaired the crack but, soon after leaving Malaga for the Canaries, it was decided the repair wouldn’t hold. Earthrace returned to Malaga and retired from her record attempt.

The boat encountered three severe weather systems in three weeks, including a monsoon off the southern coast of India and 50 knot headwinds in the Red Sea.

The latest storm in the Mediterranean caused the crack that set the seal on the record attempt.

‘The whole team is pretty devastated right now.’ said skipper Pete Bethune. ‘We have all put so much time, money, and effort into this record attempt; it is pretty upsetting to have to abandon the race.’ But Bethune hasn’t ruled out having another crack at the record sometime in the future, perhaps as early as March 2008.

Earthrace was attempting to break the world powerboat circumnavigation record using twin 540hp diesels supplied from the USA by Cummins MerCruiser Diesel that were running on biodiesel.

‘We are saddened by the news that Earthrace has been forced to abandon their record attempt,’ Ted Varney, marketing communications manager at CMD Worldwide Communication, told BB: ‘The overall mission of promoting awareness of renewable fuels has been an overwhelming success and the upcoming promotional tour in Europe will continue this mission.’