Marrowmoor Police · Incident report
Ref. MMR/0428/0102
Commodore drowned during club regatta
- Victim
- Commodore Hector Brannigan, 64
- Race
- White
- Ethnicity
- Irish
- Occupation
- Retired harbour pilot and sailing club commodore
- Cause of death
- Drowning after a blow to the head
- Time of death
- Between 13:40 and 14:00
- Found
- 15:10, his dinghy 'Kittiwake', adrift at the harbour mouth
- Location
- Marrowmoor Sailing Club and the Fen estuary
Commodore Hector Brannigan (64) sailed his dinghy Kittiwake in the club's spring regatta. At 15:10 the club launch found Kittiwake drifting at the harbour mouth with Brannigan face down in the water inside her, a gash on his head.
The club wants to call it an accident: a boom to the head, a capsize, a sad day. But every boat in the race carried a GPS tracker, and the estuary changes from salt to fresh as you go upstream.
Six people were on the water or the shore that afternoon. Find where he died, who was with him, and why.
Reporting officer: DS Adaeze Okafor