A Brazilian model and her hunky actor boyfriend dashed into the sea in a heroic effort to save a Hamptons wine mogul who’d been mortally wounded in a hit-and-run boat accident while swimming on New Year’s Eve.
Covergirl-turned-actress Fernanda Lima and her beau, Rodrigo Hilbert, saw distressed entrepreneur Christian Wolffer, 70, waving frantically from the bay near a private home in Paraty, Brazil, where all three had been attending an afternoon party.
The couple rushed to help, and Hilbert – a former Versace coverboy who played a surfer on a South American soap opera – swam out and pulled Wolffer to shore.
He couldn’t save Wolffer, who investigators said had suffered two large diagonal gashes to the chest. His death is being investigated as a “manslaughter.”
The winemaker – founder of Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack – was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“We are saddened and shocked [by the accident],” Hilbert, 24, and Lima, 31, said in a statement. “It was a brutality. We did what we could, but to our [dismay] nothing more could be done.”
Wolffer, Lima and Hilbert had been attending a New Year’s Eve luncheon at the home of Oswoldo Luiz Pastore and Carol Overmeer when he decided to go for his fateful swim.
A death certificate released today listed acute anemia caused by internal hemorrhage as Wolffer’s cause of death.
A Brazilian Port Authority commander told The Post the wounds are believed to be from a boat propeller blade.
In Paraty – an idyllic, colonial village about 100 miles west of Rio de Janeiro – locals today told The Post they believe Wolffer was hit by a large, private luxury boat out for a joyride.
The boat is believed to be from Angra do Reis, a wealthy area between Paraty and Rio.
Daniel Vieira, 29, who runs small tourist boats off the Paraty docks, said he was told the large boat “went right over” Wolffer.
“It was a terrible thing,” said Vieira. “We are all distressed and sad to hear of it. An accident like that is just an awful waste of life.”
Wolffer was a considerable distance from shore, in an area known for heavy boat traffic, when the accident occurred, locals said.
Born in Germany, the spry venture capitalist-turned-Long Island-wine pioneer was known for his love of life.
He dated a bevy of beautiful women, but remained close to his ex-wife, British department store heiress Naomi Marks. A doting dad, he spent Christmas with her and their daughters, Joanna, 26, and Georgina, 23, according to a caretaker at Naomi’s estate.
“He was in good spirits,” the staffer said. “He seemed happy to have family around him.”
One of Wolffer’s daughters arrived in Rio tdoay to identify her father’s body, officials at a funeral home said.
Brazilian press reports said he would be buried in his native Germany.
A rep at the German consulate in Brazil said arrangements would be handled through the American consulate because Wolffer entered Brazil on a US passport. US consulate officials were unavailable today.
Additional reporting by Steven Brown, Kyle Murphy and Kieran Crowley
gotis@nypost.com