Peter Warner dies at age 90 after boat capsizes in Ballina, NSW Featured
Peter Warner and Mano Totau, one of the people he rescued from the island of Ata. Picture: Jamie Brown / The Northern StarSource:News Regional Media
15 April, 2021. Sailing legend and three-time Sydney to Hobart champion Peter Warner has died aged 90 after a boat he was on capsized.
The death of Mr Warner, who was also known for rescuing a group of marooned Tongan teens from a desert island in 1966, was confirmed by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
The CYCA, which organises the Sydney to Hobart race, wrote in a Facebook post that Mr Warner died doing what he loved.
“It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing today of an internationally celebrated Australian sailor & a close friend of the Club,” the message read.
“I found him a very humble bloke for someone who had such an extraordinary life,” Mr Cappello said.
“Very witty and easy to talk to.”
NSW Police said the incident that took Mr Warner’s life happened on Tuesday morning at Lighthouse Parade in East Ballina on the NSW north coast.
Emergency services were called there at 8.45am by bystanders who said two people were in the water after a boat capsized while crossing the Ballina Bar.
A 17-year-old boy dragged Mr Warner to shore, and a member of the public tried performing CPR, but the man’s life could not be saved.
The boy was uninjured, police said. A crime scene was established, and police said they would investigate the circumstances around the death before preparing a report for the coroner.
Mr Warner devoted his life to sailing after taking to sea as a teenager. As a skipper aboard the yacht Astor, he won the Sydney to Hobart race in 1961, 1963 and 1964.
Two years after the final win, he encountered the group of shipwrecked Tongan boys and performed the rescue that would become one of his life’s enduring legacies.
Passing by the tiny island of Ata at the southern end of the archipelago that makes up the nation of Tonga, Mr Warner noticed through his binoculars a burnt patch.
“In the tropics it’s unusual for fires to start spontaneously,” he told The Guardian last year.
When he went in for a closer look, a boy leapt into the water and came towards him, and more followed. It turned out the six boys had been stuck on the island for 15 months.
“It was an incredible story,” Mr Cappello said.
- news.com.au
