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Sailor swam 9km to safety

Bunbury Sea and Rescue commander Albert Fullarton with the boat retrieved off Bunbury. PICTURE: Usman Azad.

A sailor swam five nautical miles to shore after falling from his yacht off the Bunbury coast yesterday.

The 62-year-old Dalyellup man is understood to have been in the water for up to three hours before he reached land outside the Bunbury Sea Rescue building at about 5.15pm.

The man told police had had fallen overboard as he was sailing near The Groyne and believed he had been hit by his yacht’s boom in the bad weather.

St John Ambulance took the man to Bunbury Regional Hospital where he was treated for hypothermia overnight.

A Bunbury Sea Rescue spokesman said its crews returned the man’s yacht to shore at about 8.30pm.