Disaster followed hard on the heels of elation for Thomas Coville, one of two French sailors attempting to break Dame Ellen MacArthur’s world record for a solo circumnavigation, yesterday.

Barely five minutes after Coville had set a record for distance travelled during a 24-hour period by a solo yachtsman, he went on to the deck of his 105-foot trimaran, Sodeb’O, and discovered that one of his three crash boxes had been damaged.

The crash box is effectively a bumper on the front of each of the trimaran’s hulls that prevents the vessel from breaking on impact. Coville was frustrated that his record attempt is over, but as he diverts the boat north to Cape Town, South Africa, 1,300 miles away, he may reflect that the box had saved his life.

While the cause of the damage is unclear, it is possible that his boat had collided with a “growler” or chunk of floating ice. Coville had been forced by the weather to chart a course across the Indian Ocean some 600 miles south of the route taken by MacArthur on her voyage in 2005 and he had reported seeing two large icebergs, several hundred metres in length.

“I am an eyewitness to this infamous global warming. As far as I can remember, I’ve never seen ice so far north during this season,” Coville had said on Friday, when he held a lead of 775 miles on MacArthur’s record, although he was still more than two days behind the fast pace being set by Francis Joyon, his compatriot, on IDEC, who began his voyage 24 days earlier.

Yesterday, the ice may have proved fatal. “I had just had the news that I had established a new 24-hour record when it felt like the brakes had been applied [to the boat],” Coville said. “I immediately went out and saw a spray of water climbing three metres above the starboard float. In a few seconds, I understood what had happened, though I didn’t know how. A few moments later, I saw a piece of ice, but I think that the shock would have been more violent if I had hit ice.

“A part of me is very disappointed. This is just like a tragic film scenario. I had had practically no sleep for three days and finally I dozed off. When I woke, it was going to be a big day but then I asked myself if this was simply a nightmare.

“I am in the middle of nowhere and heading towards Cape Town. I have to accept this abandonment as just part of the game. I took a real pleasure in sailing this boat. As a competitor I am really disappointed and it will take me time to analyse all that. I want to return, because I have too much bitterness to give up just like that.”

Having covered 619.3 nautical miles in the 24 hours before the accident, Coville had beaten the solo distance record by more than three miles on the 20th day of his voyage, bettering the mark set by Joyon. It is likely that he would have continued to extend the record in good weather.

Joyon covered 616 miles on December 10 and 11 as he found similarly good winds in the Indian Ocean, albeit 300 miles to the north of Coville. Both records are still subject to official ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

Joyon expressed his disappointment yesterday at his rival’s fate. “I congratulate Thomas for taking the 24-hour record, which proved the great potential of his boat,” he said. “All circumnavigators on such a long and difficult journey have a dread of damage forcing an abandonment. I am disappointed to lose a rival and the sporting stimulus that he represents.”

Far more sailors fail in attempting a solo circumnavigation than succeed. To date, only MacArthur and Joyon have done it in a multihull without a stopover. Barring disaster, Joyon is on course to shatter MacArthur’s record of 71 days, 14 hours. Although he has found the going slow off the coast of Brazil – as did MacArthur – Joyon last night had barely 4,500 miles to travel, a lead of 2,700 miles on MacArthur’s equivalent position.