A four-strong rowing team smashed a 114-year-old record for crossing the North Atlantic Ocean when they reached the finish line on Saturday.

The team sheared 11 days off the record for rowing from New York to the Isles of Scilly off the southwest English mainland.

Their time - 43 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds - smashed the previous record set in 1896 by Norwegian fishermen George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen.

"This is one of the most amazing days ever. We are so happy to be here," said 37-year-old British skipper Leven Brown, from Edinburgh.

"It has been a really tough trip and we have had a huge amount to contend with. Every bit of technology that we had seemed to break - in the end it came down to four men and four oars.

"We now need to shower, eat and sleep," he said after reaching St Mary's harbour.

The Artemis North Atlantic Rowing Challenge team also included Ray Carroll, 33, from Galway in Ireland, Don Lennox, 41, from Glasgow, and Livar Nysted, 39, from the Faroe Islands.

The journey was far from plain sailing over the notoriously treacherous route.

They had two false starts following rough conditions and technical issues, but finally left New York on June 17 in their 23-foot (seven-metre) vessel Artemis Investments.

They battled 10-metre waves and 35-knot (65 kilometres per hour) gales.

The crew all suffered with food poisoning, which is particularly challenging when four men are sharing a 23-foot boat, and Leven had to perform surgery on Ray's badly-infected toe with a knife.

They managed to set a new 24-hour record of 118 miles (190 kilometres) on July 14, previously held at 117 miles by Brown and another crew in 2008.