A body found near the Tiverton shore was identified today as the Connecticut man who fell off his sailboat Monday afternoon near the Sakonnet River’s northern entrance.

The cause of death for Bernard Mochan, 65, of Clinton, Conn., is still pending, a state Health Department spokeswoman said today.

Mochan fell off his 32-foot sailboat after being struck in the head by the boat’s boom. He was not wearing a flotation device.

The Coast Guard called off its search for Mochan on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Tiverton Fire Chief Robert Lloyd said that his department received a 911 call at about 10:30 a.m. from the head chef of the Boathouse Restaurant, who said he saw a floating object in the river about 300 yards offshore. Firefighters retrieved the body on the shore just south of the restaurant, in the Riverside and Poplar drives area.

–– with Journal archive reports