Mob of naked men plunged into sea to save drowning family

A small family who found themselves in danger after their boat began to sink received some unlikely help from a group of naked men who plunged into the sea to assist.

The men were bathing at a nudist beach on Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon when they heard the passengers screaming and dashed out to help a woman and child down from the boat in the shallow water.

Hundreds of passerbys leaving the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race stopped to watch the bizarre
mission unfold, giggling as they noticed the rescuers were in the nude.


Photographer Chris Pearce was one of the spectators walking with the large crowd when they noticed the comical rescue at Lady Bay Beach, south of the harbour.

The crowd were already chuckling at the exposed swimmers, but could not believe their eyes when they saw the rescue unfold.
'When they were walking past everyone thought it was funny, because it was a nudist beach, and then this happened,' Mr Pearce told The Sydney Morning Herald.
'Everyone basically just stopped and watched and looked as this happened.'
Pictures show the men lifting a small child off the edge of the wooden boat and carrying him through the metre-deep water to shore.
Some worked to secure the vessel by attaching a rope to the metal railing on the bow and pulling it toward the sand.