A 71-year-old Hawaii island man suffered a fatal head injury when the jury-rigged mast of his sailing vessel broke while it was being towed by a Coast Guard patrol boat in a rescue that went awry nearly a year ago.

Lance Alexander, who also was known as Lance Alexander Smith, had been working on his 30-foot boat, the Kolina, for five years, said Beth King-Mock, his companion of 25 years. She said Alexander’s goal was to get the boat in shape and sail it from Hawaii island to Molokai, where she lives.

“He really loved that boat,” King-Mock told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, saying Alexander was an accomplished sailor who had made solo voyages on two other boats from Canada to Hawaii, and also made two trips from San Francisco to the islands.

“His goal was to come home to Molokai,” King-Mock said. She said Alexander was still preparing for the Molokai voyage when a storm on Nov. 5 caused the Kolina — rigged only with a makeshift mast — to break from its mooring off Kawaihae Harbor and begin drifting.

According to the Coast Guard in an investigative report released on the failed rescue that led to Alexander’s death, he had been cited by the state for illegally living on the Kolina and ordered to move it around the harbor every 72 hours. The Department of Land and Natural Resources last week declined to address the Coast Guard report but issued a statement on Alexander’s death.

“DLNR regrets the loss of life and again extends its sympathy to the sailor’s family. We have no further comment at this time,” read the statement from spokeswoman Deborah Ward.

The Coast Guard’s Sept. 26 report details a search and rescue operation conducted 26 miles south of Maui beginning Nov. 5, when Alexander made contact at 3:51 p.m. saying the Kolina was disabled and adrift.

According to the report, the 110-foot cutter Kiska from Hilo arrived on scene about five hours later. The cutter’s crew told Alexander that the Kolina would be towed to Kawaihae or Kona but said Alexander wanted to go to Maui or Molokai.

Alexander insisted that he remain on the vessel, and he “had a fixation” to sail to Molokai without a realistic evaluation of the risks, the Coast Guard said.

The Kiska crew passed a hand-held UHF radio in a waterproof case to Alexander on the Kolina to establish reliable communications, the report said.

The Kiska began towing the Kolina at 10:50 p.m. to Kona.

Between 10:58 and 11:05 p.m., the Kiska lost radio contact with Alexander, and while attempting to re-establish communications, the crew saw that the Kolina’s mast had snapped, then spotted it in the water alongside the sailing vessel. There was no sign of Alexander on the boat, and the Kiska cut the towline at 11:31 p.m., circling back to the Kolina to investigate, the report said.

By morning a second Coast Guard boat from Maui had arrived, and its crew found Alexander’s body at 9:17 a.m. — underwater, entangled in the mast rigging, the report said. His body was recovered by the Kiska’s crew and taken to Kawaihae.

The Kolina sank just after 7 p.m. Nov. 6 after being swamped by a large wave 37 miles south of Maui.

An autopsy showed that Alexander died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Investigators said they believe the injuries occurred aboard the Kolina and that Alexander died before being pulled overboard.

A Coast Guard investigation board found the Kolina, which was built in Thailand in 1952, did not have any deck fittings the towline could be attached to, so Alexander used the mast — which he had jury-rigged in October after it snapped. The mast was improperly supported with polypropylene line instead of wire-rope standing rigging, and insufficient to withstand the tow, the Coast Guard said.

The Kolina was unseaworthy, and that was also a contributing factor in Alexander’s death, Coast Guard investigators said. The 30-foot, wooden-hull boat was “in a general state of disrepair; this vessel should not (have) been on the water,” the report said. The report said that by the time Alexander got the Kolina in 2008, it had been out of the water for several years and was not placed in water until September 2015. At that point the vessel sank in Kawaihae South Harbor, and a crane was used to move it to a rocky embankment in the harbor. Alexander coated the bottom with roofing epoxy and returned it to the water.

Another contributing factor cited was that the tow was occurring at night, which complicated the rescue.

Investigators did, however, also fault the Coast Guard rescue vessels, including the commander of the Kiska, for failing to fully assess the situation, including the condition of the Kolina and problems that could arise during the tow.

Lt. Donnie Bruzuska, Coast Guard spokesman in Alameda, Calif., told the Star-Advertiser that so far no disciplinary action has been taken against any Coast Guard personnel involved in the operation.

King-Mock said Alexander was born in Toronto in 1944 and had lost both parents by the time he was 13 years old.

“He graduated from high school with an IQ of 164” and left for Europe, where he spent several years, she said.

“Lance was a self-taught scholar and an avid reader,” she said. “He played the saxophone and flute professionally for more than 50 years, melting hearts of all who listened to his music.”

She said that Alexander worked for nearly three years in San Francisco’s first free clinic in the 1960s and was also a writer of short stories.

“His first love always was the ocean,” King-Mock said. “He would be happy if he was on the water … and on a boat.

“He always said his favorite anchorage was Hanalei Bay on Kauai after living in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and Kaneohe Bay. … He loved the view at Hanalei.”