A solo yachtsman who had been feared missing in the Atlantic has spoken about his delay after arriving back in Falmouth on Saturday four days overdue.

Robin Davie, 67, left Les Sables d'Olonne in France on Saturday last week on training for the 2022 Golden Globe Race, but prompted serious concern for his welfare when he failed to return as planned from his 300 mile voyage.

The sailor was reported as overdue by his shore contact and both French and British Coastguard had been trying to reach him since Wednesday when Mr Davie finally got in contact late on Friday night after hearing broadcasts being made about his welfare, to say he was safe and well 25 miles south west of the Isles of Scilly.

Mr Davie, skippering the yacht ‘C’est la Vie,’ told them that he had been out of radio contact range and without a mobile signal for quite some time, but as soon as he sailed closer to land he heard the broadcast and contacted the coastguard.

He explained more after returning to Falmouth on Saturday, saying: "Faced with calms and very light headwinds, I decided to take a long tack out into the Atlantic and back to test the boat in these conditions. We know that this race is won and lost not in gale force winds but when they are light, so I used the time to test myself and the boat.

"Because these boats don't have autopilot and rely on wind veins to steer by, we followed the wind on a circuitous route. That extended the distance from a 300 mile direct course to nearer 700 miles.

"I was well out of radio range and it was not until I was 25 miles south west of the Scilly Isles that I hard the alert."

Robin Davie is preparing for the 2022 Golden Globe Race. Photo credit: Robin Davie/PPL/GGR

Dai Jones, controller for HM Coastguard, said they were pleased to hear from Mr Davie, as they had become concerned for his safety.Being able to broadcast continuously can pay dividends and in this case it really helped us to locate him.

“We had worked out that the sailor could be somewhere around the Isles of Scilly by considering the weather conditions and what passage he would have been likely to take. It really was a case of putting ourselves in the skipper’s shoes,” he said.

Mr Davie's brother Rick has thanked everyone who helped in the search, saying he had begun to fear the worst. He added: "I am so grateful for all the help and publicity provided by the coastguard services and the media for publicising this."

Robin Davie was born in St Agnes in 1951 and served in the merchant navy for 20 years.

He competed in the first BOC Challenge Around Alone Race in 1990 in yacht named Spirit of Cornwall, and went on to make his second and third solo circumnavigations in the 1994 and 1998 BOC races.