Hans Horrevoets was the oldest member of ABN Amro Two crew

Dutchman Hans Horrevoets, 32, fell from ABN Amro Two on Thursday morning and failed to regain consciousness after being lifted back on the boat.

ABN Amro Two was sailing in five-metre seas and 30 knot winds about 1,300 miles from Land's End in Cornwall.

Crew members tried to resuscitate Horrevoets with advice from medical advisors from Derriford Hospital in Plymouth but could not revive him.

Skipper Sebastien Josse said: "We are all devastated by the events that took place this morning and all our thoughts are for Hans's family.

"I would like to stress that throughout the whole man overboard procedure, the crew handled themselves calmly, professionally and with the utmost maturity. It is with deep regret that we were unable to resuscitate Hans."

According to the Volvo Ocean Race website, Horrevoets was the oldest member of the ABN Amro Two crew and the only one who was married with a child, an infant daughter.

Horrevoets had been a professional sailor for more than a decade.

He was a trimmer and sailmaker aboard BrunelSunergy in the 1997-98 Whitbread Around the World Race, as the Volvo Ocean Race was then known.

ABN Amro Two set out from New York on 11 May

He was a late addition to the sailing crew of ABN Amro Two but had earlier worked with the Dutch team to select promising young sailors.

Horrevoets was washed overboard at 0211 GMT on Thursday.

The other nine members of ABN Amro Two turned the boat around, took the sails down and mounted a search and rescue effort.

But despite getting him back on board, they could not save him.

According to Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Glenn Bourke, Horrevoets spent 40 minutes in the water before being pulled back on board.

ABN Amro Two, one of seven boats in the race, started out with its rivals from New York on 11 May and is due to arrive in Portsmouth in the next few days.

The boat had been in fifth place at the time of the accident but is considering pulling out of the leg - the seventh - due to the death of Horrevoets.

The Volvo Ocean Race, which lasts seven months and covers 36,000 miles, is due to finish in Gothenburg, Sweden, in mid-June after starting off Vigo, Spain, in November.