DEVOTED family man and experienced yachtsman Phillip Everett died after falling from a dinghy while making fast the cover of his sailing boat, an inquest at Gillingham heard.

Coroner Roger Sykes said that Mr Everett, 62, of St Werburgh Crescent, Hoo, near Rochester, had been securing the canopy of his boat in choppy waters, when he fell.

The coroner said Mr Everett may have banged his head and been knocked out, or his heart may have stopped because of the shock to the body of being suddenly immersed in cold water.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death. Detective Sergeant Maxine Martin told the inquest that three boat owners who had been at Hoo Marina on September 13, saw an upturned dinghy and a man in the water with his arm raised.

They rushed to him in the marina boat, pulled him out of the water and began mouth-to mouth-resuscitation, but could not revive him.

No one had heard a shout for help.

Christine Everett said her husband was a very experienced sailor and a very fit man. He checked his boat every week and had finished the job of fastening the boat cover while standing in the dinghy "loads of times".

Mr Everett was a member of Hoo Ness Yacht Club, the Dauntless Association and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

He spent part of his early working life at sea, on sailing barges and coasters.

He later went into carpentry and at the time of his death was a wood machinist at Morgan's of Strood.

Shortly after his death, Mrs Everett said: "We were planning for our retirement. Philip lived for his family and for his boat, Tyrannosaurus."