A 60ft racing yacht owned by sailing star Dame Ellen MacArthur has been abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean following a dramatic mid-sea rescue.

French sailors Séb Josse and Jean- François Cuzon had to be airlifted off the IMOCA 60 yacht BT after it suffered severe structural damage in horrendous storms.

Josse, a member of Isle of Wight-based Dame Ellen’s sailing team Team Ellen, activated the boat’s emergency positioning beacon after a night battling fierce seas and winds of more than 70mph in the Transat Jacques Vabre race.

He and Cuzon spent more than five hours onboard the wrecked boat before being rescued by helicopter and taken to the Azores.

The sinking yacht, owned by Team Ellen and worth more than £1 million, was abandoned.

Josse, one of the race favourites, said: “I was on watch outside, Jeff inside, and we had a big ‘crack’.

“It was a wave, just a big wave but one big enough to break the roof.

“I saw half of the roof completely broken with a big hole in the deck and hundreds of litres of water in the boat.

“I was really scared if we take a second wave that could sink the boat because two or three waves like that we could be straight under the water.

“Conditions never decreased.

“All the day the wind never dropped under 45 knots and really big waves of eight-metre swells which was my biggest concern.”

He added: “It is not a good feeling to lose a boat like that in the water.”

Warsash ocean racing veteran Mike Golding was yesterday in second place in the 5,000-mile race from Le Havre in France to Puerto Limon in Costa Rica, which set off on November 8.

Gosport-based Alex Thomson was in fourth with the Hampshire pairing of Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson in seventh.

Hamble’s Sam Davies was in 11th with French co-skipper Sidney Gavignet.