Emergency services ‘did all they could’ to reach a retired printer who had fallen off his boat, an inquest heard.

Ray Cracknell, 76, had been working on his vessel moored at Lower Halstow Yacht Club, near Sittingbourne, when he slipped and fell into the water.

But his cries for help were mistaken for a car crash victim so police went looking in the wrong place, assistant coroner Eileen Sproson heard on Friday at County Hall, Maidstone.

His widow Margaret Cracknell, of Upchurch Poultry Farm, Poot Lane, said her husband had gone to his boat on Saturday, May 1, to do some work and spend the night onboard.

Just after 2am Sunday, neighbour Nigel Goodhew was woken by the sound of a man shouting and groaning “as if in pain” and called 999. He said he thought someone had been run over.

Two police patrols and a paramedic were dispatched but they drew a blank and called in an armed response unit with night-vision cameras, a drone and a dog unit to search nearby fields.

When Mr Goodhew pointed out there had been a previous incident at the yacht club’s boatyard police switched their search there.

They heard a groan from one of the boats and at 3.18am, finally spotted Mr Cracknell’s high-visibility vest in the water about 100ft from the shore and summoned help from the coastguard and fire service.

Two officers commandeered a rowing boat and reached Mr Cracknell at 3.50am - nearly two hours after the original emergency call. He was unconscious and in the water but tied to his boat’s ladder.

By 4am Mr Cracknell, who was fully clothed and wearing a lifejacket, was on the slipway where emergency CPR was performed.

He was pronounced dead at Medway Maritime Hospital at 7.32am. A post-mortem revealed he died of drowning. No drugs or alcohol were found in his blood.

The coroner said: “As tragic as this is, the police did all they could to find him as he was thought to have been on the road."

The yacht club previously paid tribute to Mr Cracknell saying he was a "well-respected member and experienced sailor."

The coroner's verdict was that this was an accident.

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