The 72 ft round-the-world race yacht Team Stelmar has made a diversion to take an ill crew member – 35-year-old Karen Smith from Oxford – to Puorto Williams, in Chile, just north of Cape Horn.

Karen’s family has been informed of the situation. Although the illness is not life threatening, action was taken before the yacht rounded Cape Horn and raced into the Southern Ocean, where an evacuation would prove difficult.

The rest of the crew aboard Team Stelmar are all safe and well, as are the other 11 yacht teams racing in leg two of the Global Challenge from Buenos Aires to Wellington.