Ellen MacArthur's bid to break the round-the-world sailing record ended dramatically today when the mast on her boat Kingfisher broke in two places.
Kingfisher was almost a day ahead of Bruno Peyron's record pace when the mast came crashing down, narrowly missing three crew members on deck.
It remains unclear how the 39.5-metre mast broke.
The crew salvaged the bottom 10-metre section of the mast and are currently making their way towards Perth, Australia.
A section of the broken mast punctured a small hole in the port hull but the boat did not take in water.
MacArthur was attempting to beat Peyron's 2002 record of 64 days, eight hours, 37 minutes and 24 seconds.
