A solo yachtsman training for the Mini-Transat race was hit on the head and shoulder when his rig fell down after a spreader collapsed following a gybe.

His 21ft boat Ocean Endeavour was four miles south west of Land’s End when the mast fell down. A Coastguard helicopter took him off for hospital treatment.

The Sennen Cove lifeboat took charge of his boat. The yachtsman had been on a qualifying 1,000 mile passage from Falmouth to Connibegs lighthouse off Southern Ireland and then onto La Rochelle, France.