Devon rowers set Atlantic record

The foursome are rowing harder to beat the race record

A British four-man crew set a world record for rowing across the Atlantic, crossing the ocean in 39 days to win the Atlantic Rowing Race on Sunday.

Devon rowers Justin Adkin, 26, brother Robert, 23, and cousins Martin Adkin, 19, and James Green, 24, completed the feat aboard a boat called All Relative.

The 2,931-mile (4,727km) trip from the Canary islands to the Caribbean island of Antigua took 39 days, 3.32 hours.

Their boat arrived about 900 miles ahead of the next crew.

And they broke the previous record of 40 days set by a New Zealand team in 2003.

We were all rowing 12 hours a day each, and then had to work another hour in between shifts Justin Adkin

The crew from Beer, England, also set another record as Martin Adkin turned 20 on Saturday to become the youngest person to row across the Atlantic.

But others were less fortunate.

Irishmen Gearoid Towey, 28, and Ciaran Lewis, 34, were rescued by a gas tanker after their boat Digicel Atlantic Challenge overturned.

Twenty-six teams set out from the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco on 30 November.

They included British Olympic rowing gold medallist James Cracknell partnered by TV presenter Ben Fogle.

Many competitors, some of whom had little or no rowing experience, have been battered by storms.

But Justin Adkin said: "We had very good weather and stuck it out when other crews were trying to make it west. We stuck south and dodged a lot of bad weather.

"We were all rowing 12 hours a day each, and then had to work another hour in between shifts."