Anthony Mello, who has died at 72, will get a fitting sendoff today with a flotilla of family and friends taking him for a burial at sea.

The popular racer, pleasure boat captain and father of two, who worked for Bermuda Charters, earned his “All Round” nickname from twice winning the Round the Island Power Boat Race, as well as a life spent on the water.

Heidi Shelley-Mello told The Royal Gazette: “My dad played with boats all his life — he couldn’t buy them so he built them and hoped they floated.”

An innovator who assembled the island’s first inshore racing boat, he “never made a normal engine”, she said: everything was modified to his tastes.

Mr Mello trained in search and rescue with the US Coast Guard for Search and Rescue, and assisted local police with rescues throughout the 1970s. He was also a volunteer fireman.

His racing prowess included winning the Marlboro 400, which was Bermuda’s first international powerboat race in the 1970s.

Mr Mello thought nothing of racing in rough conditions and in 2000, as part of a seven-man Wildcat catamaran team from Philadelphia to Bermuda, braved 20ft waves, later telling The Royal Gazette: “The rougher, the better.”

He also enjoyed sports fishing and relaxing on the water, and “absolutely loved” the Christmas boat parade. Shelley-Mello said he met her mother, Lynn, at the Sherwood Manor hotel in Fairylands, and together they created the Lee Bow Riding Centre in Devonshire. In the 1970s, Mr Mello became the official pilot for Lord Martonmere, the former Governor of Bermuda.

Mr Mello served as captain for more than 20 years for H. Ross Perot, the billionaire Texan with a local property who ran twice for US president.

A devoted ambassador for the island, Mr Mello cruised with an array of celebrity guests over his career, including the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy.

Mr Mello also cruised with the “king of pop” Michael Jackson with the actor McCauley Culkin, before settling with his own boat, AJ’s Wings, with Bermuda Charters.

His daughter recalled him as “a happy-going guy” with a famous recipe for rum swizzle, whose one anxiety was lateness.

“He loved telling tourists all about Bermuda,” she added.

Mr Mello worked with the late diving legend Teddy Tucker, including on the 1977 film The Deep, shot in Bermuda.

From making kites, carving cedar bottle openers and building furniture to rope splicing, Mr Mello “never stopped”, Ms Shelley-Mello said.

At 12.30pm today, a horse-drawn hearse will bring him to PW’s Marina in Hamilton, with a memorial flotilla to take “Captain All Round” out through Two Rock Passage at 1pm for a sea burial.

The family requested that no black be worn, but white shirts. Attendees are also asked to refrain from parking at Miles Market.