Aussie skipper 'died protecting his family'

The girlfriend of an Australian yacht skipper shot dead by robbers on a Caribbean island has told how he died shielding her and their baby from the armed gunman who killed him.

Drew Gollan, the 38-year-old captain of a luxury yacht, died after being shot three times in the chest on the island of Antigua on Thursday evening.

His partner Alena Sitkova was shot in the foot, while the couple's 21-month-old daughter Carolina was uninjured, the Courier Mail reports.

Ms Sitkova said the young family had been walking home from a restaurant near English Harbour when they were attacked by the robber.

A man brandishing a gun had jumped out of a car and Mr Gollan immediately stepped in front of his partner and daughter to protect them, Ms Sotkova said.

Ms Sotkova said the gunman then shot at her, hitting her toe, and her boyfriend ran after him.

"Drew basically was protecting us, that's why he got shot so many times," the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

She and other yachtsmen desperately tried to keep Mr Gollan alive but it was too late, Ms Sitkova said.

"It took us 20 minutes to get him to hospital, but when we got there Drew was dead already," she said.

A devastated Ms Sitkova said she and her partner of three years had been planning to get married soon and resettle in Queensland's Hervey Bay.

Instead she will wait in Antigua until she can bring Mr Gollan's body back to Sydney for his funeral.

Ms Sitkova said her boyfriend had been a special person.

"He was always happy and he always had the biggest smile on his face," she said.

''He was like sunshine coming, wherever he was."

Meanwhile, Antigua police have increased patrols in a dockyard area where Mr Gollan was shot.

According to media reports, his death has prompted protests by boaters, business owners and local residents, who complain the government has not done enough to protect the yacht-packed English Harbour area.

The twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda has been struggling with a rise in slayings, including the July shooting of British honeymooners Catherine and Benjamin Mullany in their cottage at a beachside resort.