The sailing community is mourning the loss of legendary seafarer Peter Warner.
The 90-year-old died after his yacht capsized during an attempt to cross the Richmond River bar at Ballina, on the New South Wales North Coast, yesterday morning.
Police said a 17-year-old boy who was onboard helped Mr Warner to shore, where a member of the public performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
The teenager was uninjured, but Mr Warner died at the scene.
Aboard his yacht, Astor, Mr Warner won the Sydney to Hobart race three times during the 1960s.
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia paid its respects to Mr Warner on its Facebook page.
"It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing today of an internationally celebrated Australian sailor and a close friend of the club," the post read.
Castaway rescue
An accomplished author with a passion for the ocean, Mr Warner is perhaps best remembered for his rescue of six shipwrecked teenage castaways in Tonga in 1966.
He was fishing near the uninhabited Ata Island when he heard the the boys calling to him from the beach.
He radioed back to Tonga to check that the naked boys running along the beach and swimming out to his boat were not criminals who had been dropped on the remote island as punishment, as was the practice in Polynesia at the time.
Mr Warner was the heir of a wealthy Australian media magnate, Arthur Warner, but gave up his inherited role as a future media tycoon at the age of 17 to fish and sail the world in the hope of becoming a great sailor.
Officers from Richmond Police District are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and will prepare a reporter for the coroner.
