Tony Short, 67, finally ate his Christmas dinner on Saturday night after spending more than 48 days rowing the Atlantic in a team of four. He is the oldest man ever to do so, but he told Louise Vennells that the voyage meant much more than the record.

On bad days, Tony Short would finish a two-hour rowing stint, crawl into his bunk and let Elgar drown his sobs over his earphones.

The tears were the least of his worries – the real problems arose from the salt water which soaked through his clothing, and the angry sores which plagued his body. For three straight weeks, the Corinthians, known throughout gig racing circles across the Westcountry, had been saturated. Their boat was constantly battered by 50ft waves and gale force winds. Every member of the team wanted to give up.

Yet instead, they treated those waves like a daredevil surfing challenge, and lifted each other's spirits through banter and messages of support from home. They rowed the 3,000-mile span of the Atlantic, from La Gomera to Barbados, in 48 days, eight hours and three minutes, making Mr Short the oldest man ever to complete the feat.

Yet the grandfather – who turned 67 during the voyage – cared little about the record.

He said: "I'm really proud that we have rowed the Atlantic. I'm chuffed for myself and for my team – but quite honestly, the oldest man bit is neither here nor there."

The team members, who were raising money for the British Heart Foundation and ShelterBox, all relish a challenge. Mr Short and team-mate Brian Fletcher, 57, have trekked together to the Everest base camp, while Elliot Dale, 51, competes in motorsport across Europe. Chris Walters, 52, was the driving force behind the epic ocean row.

Despite clocking up a combined age of 226, the team made a strong start when they set off from La Gomera, despite little experience in their boat, as it was completed late. They got to row it for the first time once they arrived in the Canaries.

Mr Short, a one-time London detective who took over the family building firm, had trained for two years, and each member had invested thousands of pounds of their own money into buying the £70,000 Spirit of Corinth.

But problems began to arise just a few days into the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge race, when the team was well in the lead. The autohelm, which steers the vessel on a steady path, suddenly came away from its fixings. Darkness was falling, and the team had to put down anchor and wait 13 hours until engineer Elliot Dale was able to carry out makeshift repairs. Sadly, it was only the beginning. Two days later, and another 12 hours wasted, and the electrics had packed up. They would have to steer themselves, meaning one man who could have been rowing would be dedicated to the task.

Morale sank, and at times arguments erupted as a result of the pressure. "We were pretty low. It meant any chances we had of doing seriously well were out of the window. We all thought about giving up, but fortunately we had loads of support from people ashore, and that really kept us going," said Mr Short.

At one point, an inflamed elbow injury meant his hand seized up, and he was forced to row one-handed for a day. It was his lowest ebb, but he ploughed through and the next day, the sensation in his fingers mercifully returned.

The team had to carry out emergency treatment on Mr Short. "I had terrible sores on my posterior," he said. "You'd be rowing with tears running down your face because it was so painful. We were sitting in salt water, and the fresh water on board was too valuable to use to wash."

His friends eventually managed to patch him up well enough to allow the sores to heal.

The weather was particularly ugly during their race. The team encountered 50ft waves and gale force winds which could have sent their boat tumbling.

"The only way to avoid being really scared was to treat it as a challenge, said Mr Short. "We would aim for the really big ones with the surf breaking at the top, but occasionally they would break over you. We just had to hope they didn't twist the boat, because that would have smashed everything."

He expressed "huge respect" for other racers, particularly Row2Recovery, a team of four disabled war veterans and two able-bodied rowers. Their fresh water-maker broke and they had to wait more than a week to be rescued. "They say it's the toughest rowing race in the world and if there's a harder one, I don't want to hear about it."

Despite the setbacks, he is delighted with the performance: "We hoped to complete the race in under 50 days, and that's what we achieved. I'm very happy with our performance. Ifs and buts don't win races."

The team had regularly dreamed about what they would do when they arrived in Barbados, but nothing could prepare them for the huge and exuberant welcoming crowd after they had been starved of outside contact for seven-and-a-half weeks. "It was the most amazing, surreal experience," said Mr Short. "We were completely blown away."

On Saturday night, their home base of Lyme Regis provided its own welcome with a belated Christmas dinner at the Talbot Inn. The town launched fireworks to mark the date the team arrived in Barbados and other celebrations are planned.

But Mr Short is happy to retreat back to his home in the Blackdown Hills and catch up with family. Yet he cannot quite rule out another adventure. "Never say never," he said.

To sponsor the team, visit www.spiritofcorinth.co.uk