Luke Porter, Oliver Smith, Oliver Young and Sam Usher flew into London's Heathrow airport after a traumatic few days.
The men had been travelling from Bahrain to Dubai in the Dubai-Muscat offshore sailing race, onboard the yacht Kingdom of Bahrain, when they strayed 'inadvertently into Iranian waters'.
The four men were held along with David Bloomer, a Bahrain-based radio journalist, who did not fly to the UK on Friday.
Speaking to reporters after landing back on UK soil, Mr Smith, the skipper, said: 'It's great to be back. Initially, when we first got stopped, it was not very nice to be blindfolded and taken back to be questioned.
'As time went by, the guys treated us very well. There was no animosity at all.'
Mr Young added: 'We had a bit of a shocker really. We are sorry for everything we've put our families through, and thanks to everyone.'
Andrew Pindar, the boat's owner, said the crew had a 'high degree of embarrassment' over the incident which has dominated the British news agenda for the last week.
'They're embarrassed that they've created a problem for other people. The first thing they said was 'Sorry for giving people grey hairs',' he said.
A broken rudder is believed to be responsible for the crew drifting off course and unintentionally entering Iranian waters.
The foreign secretary and the Foreign Office have insisted the incident never came close to becoming a political issue with Tehran, unlike back in 2004 when eight British servicemen were held in Iran for two weeks after straying into Iranian waters during a training exercise.
The men had been travelling from Bahrain to Dubai in the Dubai-Muscat offshore sailing race, onboard the yacht Kingdom of Bahrain, when they strayed 'inadvertently into Iranian waters'.
The four men were held along with David Bloomer, a Bahrain-based radio journalist, who did not fly to the UK on Friday.
Speaking to reporters after landing back on UK soil, Mr Smith, the skipper, said: 'It's great to be back. Initially, when we first got stopped, it was not very nice to be blindfolded and taken back to be questioned.
'As time went by, the guys treated us very well. There was no animosity at all.'
Mr Young added: 'We had a bit of a shocker really. We are sorry for everything we've put our families through, and thanks to everyone.'
Andrew Pindar, the boat's owner, said the crew had a 'high degree of embarrassment' over the incident which has dominated the British news agenda for the last week.
'They're embarrassed that they've created a problem for other people. The first thing they said was 'Sorry for giving people grey hairs',' he said.
A broken rudder is believed to be responsible for the crew drifting off course and unintentionally entering Iranian waters.
The foreign secretary and the Foreign Office have insisted the incident never came close to becoming a political issue with Tehran, unlike back in 2004 when eight British servicemen were held in Iran for two weeks after straying into Iranian waters during a training exercise.
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