OCEAN CITY - A broken mast and a submerged hull might give you an idea of what this sailboat and its skipper went through last night.

"The boat was doing this you know," says 57–year–old Brian Mann, mimicking the motions of his vessel in 10-foot seas.

He says he’s a little embarrassed but very grateful to survive the ordeal he experienced last night.

Sailing out of Cape May in winds of 40 to 55 mile–per–hour, his 31–foot–long trimaran flipped around 6 o'clock last night, leaving Mann clinging to the capsized hull above 58–degree water.

Just before dark he dove under the hull and fetched his survival suit, but his radio, flares and lifeboat were ruined or unreachable.

With heavy seas beating down he waited, alone, through out the night about 8 miles southeast of Corson's Inlet.

"I was sopping wet cause I dove," says Mann.

Around 9 a.m. hope arrived in the form of a couple out fishing.

Within minutes of tossing him a ring buoy to him, he was inside their boat Pulp Fishing.

"We were just grateful to see that he seemed to be okay, so we threw him a life preserver, he just held on thank God," says Karen April.

Coast guard rescue personnel attended to Mann, and despite a boat flipping on him and15 hours of harsh exposure, he was released with no serious injuries.

"I can't imagine what it would be like spending the night in the water, it had to be awful," says Frank Trifiletti, owner of the Pulp Fishing.

But thanks to the pair of good Samaritans and his survival suit, Mann is still here even if his boat is in pieces.

"The lesson is always be prepared for the worst, I mean at anytime anything can happen and it happened and he wasn't really ready cause he couldn't get to his stuff," says petty officer 2nd class Dereck Casper of the Coast Guard, which sent crews from stations Great Egg and Townsend Inlet.

Brian Mann was returning to his home state of Massachusetts after extensive sailing to Bermuda and the Caribbean.

Saturday night he was watching his sailboat drain at the yard of Shamrock Towing in Somers Point.