Why? Did I miss something...
He surfaced and signaled his boat; they lost him. A sailboat and motor boat failed to stop for him (either intentionally or not), he had a SMB and whistle, remained calm and survived. Unless ones argument is that everyone accessing emergency services should pay for them I don't see what he did wrong. Should someone who's house catches fire pay for the fire department?
In fact we all pay before hand for those services with taxes. Even we pay for services we will never require. It´s like the medical care. If you pay for all the things you use, why a medical care service ?
Those things work considering the amount of people paying and the small number of people actually needing help.
Even foreign people pay for those services when buying goods and services via taxes.