A VERDICT of "accidental death" has been recorded after a teenager was killed while sailing.
Charlie Hutton, formerly of Rockfield Road, was sailing off the coast of the Isle of Wight with his dad, Simon, and two of his friends when the tragedy occurred on July 20 last year.
The inquest, held at the Isle of Wight Coroner's Court last week, heard how Mr Hutton had taken his son on a boating trip from Mudeford in Dorset to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight.
The 14-year-old Oxted Hockey Club player was swept overboard, along with one of his friends, when a huge wave hit the side of his dad's rigid inflatable boat.
Charlie, an England under-15 hockey star, was knocked unconscious by the boat's engine and taken to Southampton General Hospital by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The Whitgift School pupil died later that day.
The second boy who fell from the boat was taken to St Mary's Hospital on the Isle of Wight with serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The inquest heard that the boat was well equipped with safety gear and Mr Hutton had Royal Yachting qualifications for driving motorised vessels.
In a statement at the time of their son's death, Charlie's father and mother, Gill, said: "Charlie was an amazing field hockey player, who had trained with the England under-15 team and had hoped to reach the England under-16 team this year, with the ambition of eventually playing for Britain in the Olympics in 2020. His effort, passion and self-belief would surely have taken him there."
