The man who was found floating face-down in the sea on the main shipping approach to Tauranga Harbour on Saturday has been identified as Hamilton man Gregory Dean Bunyan.
Bunyan, a 55-year-old from Hamilton, was unable to be revived when he was pulled from the water near the Tauranga Harbour entrance.
Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said people from another boat radioed Coastguard about finding an unoccupied yacht beside the Port of Tauranga's "A" buoy - the buoy ships steered for before entering the harbour.
The members of the public found the un-manned boat floating about 3:20pm on Saturday.
The Coastguard was notified and responded within minutes, and found a man in the water.
"There was excellent work by the Coastguard crew to recover the man and commence CPR on the boat," he said.