An unidentified man has reportedly passed away after falling overboard from a sailboat in the waters off of Marblehead Saturday afternoon.

According to Salem Assistant Harbor Master Patrick Mulligan, area emergency responders received an alert around 2 p.m. Saturday that a man had fallen from a sailboat.

Passengers aboard the Boston Yacht Club's Race Committee boat, he said, were the first to notice that something had gone wrong.

"They witnessed him fall off the sailboat and then they immediately went over and were able to retrieve him from the water," Mulligan said. "At some point between when he went in the water and when they got to him he had gone into cardiac arrest."

Mulligan said the Salem Harbor Master's boat intercepted the race committee's vessel and rushed the man to a waiting ambulance on State Street. He was reportedly taken to Salem Hospital.

Mulligan said the man who fell overboard was a volunteer crew-member and appeared to have been in his mid-50's. It is unknown whether or not he was an experienced sailor.

"The Boston Yacht Club had a list of people who volunteered to be crew-members and the captain of the sailboat he was on said he had just met him that day," Mulligan said Sunday night. "He just took him off of the crew list as a volunteer so they had never really sailed with him before."

Earlier this evening, The Marblehead Racing Association posted that they were "deeply saddened by the loss of one of our racers," on their Facebook page.

"Our hearts are with his family and crew," the post read. "We are grateful to the emergency responders from the US Coast Guard; and the Salem and Marblehead police and fire departments for their efforts."

Marblehead Patch will be posting additional information as it becomes available.