American Steve Fossett's catamaran PlayStation smashed the record time for crossing the north Atlantic Ocean yesterday, completing the journey in four days 17 hours 28 minutes and six seconds, organisers said.

The giant vessel crossed the finish-line south of the Cornwall coast just before 11 a.m., Fossett's spokeswoman Kate Edge said.

That slashed nearly two days off the existing record of six days 13 hours, three minutes and 32 seconds set by Frenchman Serge Madec in the catamaran Jet Service V on June 6th, 1990.

The crew covered 2,925 nautical miles and maintained an average speed of 25.42 knots during its Atlantic crossing.

Crew spokesman Stuart Radnofsky said conditions favoured the record-breaking journey. "They had astonishingly flat seas for most of the passage," he said. "They had a cold front that turned into what was categorised as a 'monster front' and they went ahead of it all the way from New York."

Radnofsky said that Fossett's meteorologists had been waiting weeks for a good weather pattern.

During her passage, she set a new 24-hour speed record of 687.17 nautical miles between 10 p.m. GMT on October 6th and 10 p.m. GMT on October 7th. The 38-metre long PlayStation had left New York on Friday evening.

Fossett failed in his attempt to make the first solo round-the-world balloon flight in August when he came down close to Brazil's border with Uruguay.