Hamble skipper Lisa McDonald has been forced to abandon the seventh leg of the Volvo Ocean Race after the mast on her boat Amer Sports Too came crashing down in the Atlantic.

The boat is now heading for Halifax in Nova Scotia where it will be loaded on to a ship and sent off to La Rochelle in France in time for the eighth leg restart on May 25.

McDonald's all-women crew reported that the mast snapped just above the second spreader while they were about 400 miles south-east of Halifax.

"There was a loud bang and the mast came down," said McDonald, wife of rival Volvo skipper Neal on Assa Abloy.

"We don't know why it broke. Once we have sorted ourselves out and got under way again we will take a very close look."

No one was injured when a 16 metre section fell overboard leaving a ten metre stem which formed the basis of a jury rig.

The broken mast had to be recovered from the water and was lashed to the deck while McDonald had discussions with her shore crew and syndicate management about whether to abort and head off to Canada or whether they should risk carrying on to La Rochelle, more than 2,500 miles away.

While the decision had no bearing on their position in the race - Amer Sports Too are lying in eighth and last place with no chance of honours - a diversion to Halifax was deemed to be the safest and most sensible option.

A jury rig may not have coped well with the gale force winds that are common in the Atlantic and their slow speeds may have delayed their arrival in La Rochelle until it was too late to make repairs for the penultimate leg from La Rochelle to Gothenburg.

This is the second time McDonald has suffered a dismast while racing round the world in this race.

In the last Whitbread, while she was on EF Education, the girls lost their rig when ploughing through the Southern Ocean, forcing them into southern Chile.