City lifeguards spearheaded a medical rescue yesterday in which an injured man was taken from his sailboat about a mile offshore from Diamond Head, to the hospital in about an hour.

The man, 40, was injured when a mast snapped and struck him, said Jim Howe, city Ocean Safety operations chief. The injured man called 911 at 3:42 p.m. Lifeguards with paramedic training used personal watercraft to reach the injured man within four minutes, Howe said.

The Fire Department helicopter was on scene four minutes later and the patient was airlifted in a basket to Kapi'olani Park. Emergency Medical Services personnel there gave him further medical attention for the injuries to his torso and took him in serious condition to The Queen's Medical Center, arriving at 4:53 p.m.

"It was pretty outstanding — the very rapid response and coordination of all emergency agencies, each performing their roles flawlessly," Howe said.

The personnel who responded to the sailboat are among 50 of the city's 200 lifeguards classified as Emergency Medical Technicians II. "They did an outstanding job of what we call 'packaging the patient' and preparing him for transport to Kapi'olani Park," Howe said.

Lifeguards and firefighters are joint responders in the city's emergency medical systems. Over the past five years, Ocean Safety/Lifeguard Services has been involved in 6,802 rescues, including 1,437 in 2004, said Water Safety administrator Ralph Goto.