An elderly Tasmanian man has been saved by a pair of schoolboys after driving his car off a wharf – and it is not the first time he has driven a car into the drink.

Jim McCrary, 85, said he had time to kill waiting for a prescription from the local chemist – so he went for a drive along the wharf at Triabunna.

But when he pulled a U-turn at the marina, a mishap saw Jim end up over the edge.

“My foot slipped off the brake onto the accelerator, which drove the car across the walkway … and in [to the water], and nearly under a big fishing boat.”

Mr McCrary retold his story while watching his car being retrieved from the water.

“I didn’t panic, water was pouring in … I waited until the water got up to a certain level and pressed the button to open the window and got my hand out and called out,” he said.

Triabunna High School student Declan Draper, 15, was on the wharf and saw the accident happen.

“I said to [friend] Jayden, ‘What do we do?'” he said.

“I said, ‘Let’s get in the dinghy and have a look’.”

The group of four young men took to the inflatable and headed out.

“[Another friend] Dan got on the roof of the car and put a rope around him and we pulled him up onto the boat,” Mr Draper said.

Fellow student Jayden Silver, 16, said Mr McCrary was “pretty shocked”.

“He didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t get out,” he said.

Not the first time Jim’s taken underwater route

The young men managed to get Mr McCrary back on dry land and off to the doctor for a check up.

Mr McCrary said it was not the first time he had driven a car into the water.

“Going back several years, back to 1950-something, I went into the Derwent River in a car,” he said.

“I’m like a cat with nine lives!”

And one of his saviours, Declan Draper, was also no stranger to saving lives.

“I have actually saved someone from drowning in Lake Leake,” he said.

-ABC