http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/ne...07rescue.shtml
By MEREDITH GOAD, Portland Press Herald Writer

Lobster boat rescues man overboard but tied to his sailboat


PHIPPSBURG — A South Portland man was rescued by a lobster boat Friday
after he fell overboard while sailing off West Point, according to the
Maine Marine Patrol. Arnie Hoffman, 57, of South Portland left Sebasco
Harbor Resort at 8 a.m. in his 30-foot sailboat and headed east.
Sailing alone, he was moving toward the stern of his boat when the
boom swung around and hit him on the head, leaving a gash, said Sgt.
Jonathan Cornish of the Maine Marine Patrol.

Hoffman fell into the water around Wood Island.

"Fortunately, he had himself tethered to the boat with a nylon tether,
and he also had a self-inflating life jacket on," Cornish said.

"Between the two of them, it kept him afloat. He was still behind the
sailboat, which was still sailing without him."

Hoffman was able to pull himself to the stern ladder on the sailboat,
but didn't have the strength to get himself back on the boat, Cornish
said. He called out to other boats, but no one heard him.

Hoffman held on for about 30 minutes, mostly submerged from the
shoulders down.

When he reached Mark Island, south of Wood Island, a lobster fisherman
saw that he was in distress and picked him up, Cornish said.

The sailboat was brought into West Point and put on a mooring. Hoffman
was transported by ambulance to Midcoast Hospital in Brunswick.

"I talked to him there and they were fixing him up and treating him
for hypothermia," Cornish said. "He was lucid and conscious, and he
was going to be OK."