The body of experienced yachtsman Mal Lennon has been found after he was washed off his boat in severe storms that hit NSW's mid-north coast.
The body of a man was discovered floating in the water on Sunday morning by a recreational vessel following a four-day search for Mr Lennon, police say.
He is yet to be formally identified, but police believe the man is the missing 62-year-old sailor, who was at the helm of the yacht Amante when he was struck by a huge wave that knocked him into the water off Broughton Island on Wednesday morning.
Crew members and investigators believe Mr Lennon was struck by a "green wave" - a wall of water that had not yet broken.
Rescuers had little hope he survived the night in the rough seas without a life jacket.
"Sea conditions were up to six to eight metres with sometimes up to 50-knot gales," NSW Police Marine Area Command Superintendent Mark Hutching told reporters before the body was found.
Mr Lennon, who has an adult daughter with his former wife, was a civil engineer but had been a property manager with Cadence Australia for a decade.
His boss Todd Murphy, whose father had known Mal for more than 40 years, told AAP during the search that the news had come as a shock to staff who were numb and in distress.
Mr Murphy described Mr Lennon as a "one off" and a "smart cookie" who is passionate about his family, his work and sailing.
"A lot of young people work for us and Mal was a good role model for them and a much-loved bloke," he said on Thursday.
"Mal was a one off. He was an incredibly smart person. It's of no surprise he was on a boat doing what he loved."
Mr Lennon grew up with three siblings in the iconic property Wanganui at Longueville, which sold last year for almost $6.5 million.
Amante, owned and skippered by Dennis Cooper, was returning to Sydney after coming 33rd in the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs yacht race over the new year break.
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