A witness who saw the boat capsize about 100 metres from the shore at 10am went to the rescue of the older man who had started swimming towards the beach.

Acting Sergeant Danny Lean from Mornington police station said the older man from Mooroolbark was not wearing a life saving jacket. He said that CPR was applied to the man on the beach but he died.

Acting Sergeant Lean swum out to rescue the second man who had let go of the upturned vessel. He said the Wantirna man was unable to swim and was screaming for help.

‘‘I swum out, grabbed him and brought him back in. The air wing and water police were going to be five to ten minutes.’’

Acting Sergeant Lean said the man was not wearing a saftey jacket. ‘‘I couldn’t just stand there and watch him,’’ he said.

He said that before the boat tipped over, a witness had seen one of the men move to the back of the boat because the rear was ‘‘riding low’’ and the witness thought it appeared as if the shift in weight caused it to capsize.

‘‘There were no reports of flares. It was lucky that people on the beach observed the incident.’’

Paramedics treated the Wantirna man for hypothermia and he was taken to Frankston Hospital for observation.

Water police Sergeant Lachlan Holding said the men launched their boat at Olivers Hill boat ramp at 5am to go fishing.

He said witnesses told police that the men had brought their boat to shore near Freemans Road in Mt Eliza before it capsized, because they were having difficulties with the vessel.

They then took it back on to the bay in an effort to get it back to the ramp at Olivers Hill when they again struck difficulty a short distance from the Freemans Road beach.

‘‘Danny did an excellent job in trying circumstances,’’ Sergeant Holding said.