A sailor is lucky to be alive after jumping off his yacht during a storm off Hamelin Bay.
Augusta Marine Rescue Commander Paul Higginson said sailer Larry Barber must have been absolutely desperate to make the jump from his 46 foot ketch onto a small tender.
"The weather conditions off Hamelin Bay were absolutely horrendous overnight. The wind was hitting 50 knots and he would have been getting thrown around on his boat," Mr Higginson said.
"Conditions must have been awful in order for him to take the risk of jumping onto a small tender in the hope it would wash him onto Hamelin Island, which it did."
The Marine Rescue volunteer said Mr Barber had been sailing from Dampier to South Australia when he got into trouble off the WA coast.
Police say the ketch, called Shambles, had hit rocks on Friday night.
"About 6.30pm an emergency phone call was made to WA police from a man on board a 46 foot yacht off Hamelin Bay. The yacht had damaged its rudder and started taking on water after hitting rocks," said Samuel Dinnison from Police Media.
Augusta Marine Rescue tried to reach the yacht on Friday night but the bad weather forced them back to base.
"We tried again around 7am this morning," said Paul Higginson.
"Just me and volunteer Joel Veitch on a Jetski. When we got to his yacht there was no sign of Larry but we found him a little later on a beach on Hamelin Island.
"He wasn't hurt but he had had a horrendous night. The weather was appalling."
The yachtsman was taken to hospital for a check-up.
"We are going to try to get back onto his yacht on Monday morning to get him his belongings. He has had enough of the ketch. He doesn't want to go back on board. He doesn't even want the yacht any more. He's been through a really bad time," said Commander Higginson.
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