Richards was fourth in the Around Alone earlier this year

The pair put into Brest in northern France on Monday after faults with the wind instruments and electrical systems on their 60ft yacht Pindar.

The trans-Atlantic race from Le Havre to Brazil began for monohulls in rough weather conditions on Saturday.

But Sunday's start for the giant multihulls was delayed by three days.

Richards said: "It is a massive disappointment, particularly because in all the races I have competed in over the past four years with Pindar we have only had one previous retirement.

"However, the point of acquiring the new boat is to try and win races, and due to all the problems we have had on-board, which started with the failure of the wind instruments, we are just not in a position to compete in this race.

It seems crazy that the multi-hulls were delayed until Wednesday but it was deemed okay to send us out there Emma Richards

"When we saw the weather forecast before the start on Saturday we joked that we had about a 50/50 chance of surviving the first four days, and unfortunately, that has proved to be the case.

"As our wind instruments weren't working we didn't know for certain the strength of the wind, but we were clearly sailing in boat breaking conditions."

Richards, who finished fourth in the Around Alone solo round-the-world race earlier this year, also revealed that a broken water hose had flooded all the electrics on board, including the autopilot.

High winds hamper MacArthur

She said: "There was no way of mending the electronics while at sea, and we would not be able to do it quickly enough on land to keep us within any chance of a podium place.

"So we have decided that we will concentrate on getting these issues properly resolved ready for the Transat and other races next year."

But Richards insisted it was the wrong decision to start the monohull fleet into force nine winds, while the multihull competitors, including fellow Briton Ellen MacArthur, were delayed until Wednesday