Tributes have been paid to a yacht captain who died after helping guide his 43-foot yacht and crew through a string of near disasters in the North Atlantic before reaching Bermuda.

Father-of-two Richard Brignoli had not been in good health before departing Connecticut onboard the twin-masted .

A regular visitor and member of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, he was taken seriously ill mid-journey as the battled rough seas and mishaps including her main mast breaking in two and the rear Mizzen sail becoming unusable.

Amazingly Mr. Brignoli, 67, had enough strength to return to the helm as the Tanton yacht limped into St. George?s Harbour last Friday, but he had lost four units of blood due to internal bleeding and was rushed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for treatment before being air-lifted to a hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he died this week.

It was his abiding love of sailing that drove Mr. Brignoli to attempt another trip despite the state of his health.

Although born to a poor family in the slums of South Boston, during his working life the American was a financial modeller who helped develop the Modern Portfolio Theory about risk investment that is used by many financial companies.

He had owned the for 26 years and visited Bermuda almost yearly and had taken part in sailing races on the Island. The yacht has survived five hurricanes and extensive trips around various parts of the world.

Son Chris Brignoli, said: ?My father was a very accomplished and generous person and helped hundreds of people that needed help. He had more sailing miles than anyone I have ever known, too many to count.?

The experienced a catalogue of disasters as she made her way from Greenwich in Connecticut on a planned trip to the Caribbean. Almost as soon as she left port the auto pilot began to malfunction.

This was followed by the Mizzen sail boom breaking twice, the main mast becoming ?un-stepped? and gyrating dangerously below deck, cutting through anchor ropes but miraculously not causing a hole in the keel before it snapped in two.

Lines still attached to the mast then fouled the boat?s propeller and left it drifting for hours in rough seas before they could be cleared. The crew of the yacht managed to get the yacht to Bermuda using a makeshift set-up of jerry cans on the deck and a pipe feeding fuel to the main engine after problems with the main fuel tank. Captain Brignoli had taken ill during the unfolding drama. As the yacht became caught in a North Atlantic storm the crew decided not to call for assistance in the dangerous conditions.

Mr. Brignoli?s son said: ?I want to honour the crew. They went through an amazing amount of bad weather and they pulled the boat through an amazing situation to try to get my father to the hospital.

?They did not call for help because they knew it was too dangerous at sea in the stormy weather to put other people at danger to try to save somebody. That was good that they did not call and ask Bermuda Harbour Radio to try and do that, because that would have put other people at risk.?

He said his father was an experienced sailor but was unwell with heart and liver problems, although the extent of his ill-health was not widely known.

?He was really ill before the trip but he was such a stoic person that he did not want anybody to know. It was so important to him to be at sea and sail that he didn?t want to be stuck in a hospital or have anything stop him from going.?

While being treated at KEMH members of his family were able to fly in from the US and speak to him before his condition deteriorated and he was flown to Connecticut for further treatment.

?The family had been able to talk to him. He was saying he was going to pull through, he was planning to be back on the boat and sailing again within the week,? said Mr. Brignoli, who said that since his father?s death there had been an ?overwhelming reaction? from friends who wanted to pay tribute and pass on their condolences.

He added: ?There are hundreds of stories from people who will be coming to the funeral who he helped. If anyone needed something he would do it and not think twice. He would give someone the shirt of his back. He did not save his money, he used it to help people.?

Hundreds of people are expected to attend an event in his honour at the famous Indian Harbour Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT.

Bermudian friend Martin Pollard said he first met Mr. Brignoli in 1975 when he assisted with a race from the US to the Island. He said: ?He was an amazing character, a remarkable man and a true friend.?

And Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club Commodore Don Jolliffe said: ?He was a very nice gentleman and had a lot of experience sailing. He was a credit to the club and got involved in a lot of things here.?

The damagedyacht remains in St. George?s Harbour while plans are made to either prepare a new or makeshift main mast or have the ship sent back to the US by container ship.

Mr. Brignoli is survived by his two children and his wife Evelyn.