Sailor Peter Warner who won Sydney to Hobart race THREE times died when his yacht capsized


One of Australia’s most celebrated sailors who won the Sydney to Hobart three times has died after his yacht capsized off the New South Wales coast.

Peter Warner was best known for rescuing a group of shipwrecked Tongan teenagers in 1966 who were marooned for a year on an island and presumed dead. 

At 9am on Tuesday, the 90-year-old drowned when his boat rolled at the notoriously dangerous Ballina Bar, off the coast of Byron Bay, when tides threw him and a teenager overboard.

The 17-year-old was uninjured and managed to drag Warner to shore where frantic locals tried to revive him, before paramedics arrived and he was pronounced dead. 

Legendary sailor Peter Warner (pictured) was best known for rescuing a group of shipwrecked Tongan teenagers in 1966

Legendary sailor Peter Warner (pictured) was best known for rescuing a group of shipwrecked Tongan teenagers in 1966 

Witness Todd McGreary said he saw a boat that seemed to be out of control, and stopped to take a closer look.

‘We thought it had just lost its motor or something like that, so we continued walking along and then a guy ran back and said “someone’s just jumped off the boat”.’

Warner’s daughter Janet paid tribute to her father the ‘great seafarer’.

‘He was a great seafarer and passed away (Tuesday) morning after a night-time sail up from Yamba on his new boat,’ Ms Warner told the Daily Telegraph.

‘The conditions were favourable otherwise he would not have attempted the voyage.’ 

She also praised the 17-year-old boy who dragged his body to shore. 

‘The lad with my father is amazing in what he did to bring him ashore,’ she said.

‘We are so grateful to his sailing companion.’ 

The notorious area (pictured) where Warner's boat overturned near Ballina, on the NSW north coast

The notorious area (pictured) where Warner’s boat overturned near Ballina, on the NSW north coast

After taking out the famous Sydney to Hobart races in 1961, ’63 and ’64 at the helm of his yacht Aston, the skipper was sailing past the Tongan Island ‘Ata in 1966 when he noticed there were burned patches in the grass.

‘This first figure was swimming towards us doing the Australian crawl, as I call it,’ Warner told 60 Minutes when interviewed about the amazing rescue.

‘And then another five bodies leapt off the cliff and into the water and followed him.’ 

The boys climbed into the boat and told the crew about how they’d gotten shipwrecked after running away from boarding school in Tonga.

Warner said he radioed Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, to verify the story.

‘The operator very tearfully said: ‘It’s true. These boys were students at this college. They’ve been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. And now you’ve found them,’ Warner recalled. 

‘That was a very emotional moment for all of us.’

In his memoir, Warner wrote: ‘The boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.’

The map above shows where the boys set sail from in Tonga, where they were headed in Fiji and where they ended up on the island of 'Ata after a storm ripped the sails and rudder off of their boat

The map above shows where the boys set sail from in Tonga, where they were headed in Fiji and where they ended up on the island of ‘Ata after a storm ripped the sails and rudder off of their boat

One boy, Totau, said getting on Warner’s boat felt ‘like walking through the door to heaven’.

When the boys were arrested for stealing the boat upon arrival in Nuku’alofa, Warner paid off the boat’s owner to make the charges go away and then transported the boys back to their home island to be reunited with their families.

An Australian film crew chronicled the reunion in a movie about the saga called ‘The Castaways’, which saw the boys return to ‘Ata to reenact their time there. 

‘The whole population of this little island were on the beach, hugging the boys,’ Warner said. 

‘Parents were crying. Then the party started. Six days of feasting.’

Fataua, one of the boys, said: ‘My mom, she was swimming out before I get out the boat. I’m the first one going to the beach, and give me a hug.’

After being rescued the boys chose not to go back to school and instead began working for a fishing business Warner set up in Tonga.  

Fataua followed through on his island promise to dedicate himself to God and became a minister. He is now head of the Church of Tonga in America. 

Totau became a chef, moved to Australia and built a lifelong friendship with Warner.

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