Largs Lifeboat and the Coastguard were called to assist with a vessel in difficulty in Fairlie bay on Tuesday afternoon.

Concerned residents contacted the News when they saw the emergency response at Southannan yesterday.

However, the Coastguard have provided reassurances to the News that it was nothing sinister, and it turned out to be a small cruiser marooned in shallow waters on the Firth of Clyde.

Largs and Millport Weekly News: Coastguard and RNLI provided assistance for vessel which got marooned in shallow waters

A spokesperson said: "We were called out to Southannan Sands at around 4.30pm.

"A vessel had basically ran aground and we had to wait for the high water mark for it to be re-floated.

"When we initially got to him we checked that there was no damage to the vessel and he was happy to stay on board and wait to get it refloated so it could return to its mooring.

"The lifeboat was there initially. He couldn't be towed so had to wait until the water level had returned so it could safely go back on its way."

"It was re-floated at around 10.30pm."

The RNLI crew at Largs Lifeboat were paged at 5.08pm after reports of a 23 foot yacht aground between Hunterston Jetty and Southannan Sands.
On arrival the skipper advised that he was happy to stay on board his vessel and refloat it once there was sufficient water to do so.
After final checks for no damage and advising UK Coastguard of the owners intentions, the volunteer crew were released from service and proceeded back to station.
Commenting on the call out Volunteer Helm Michael Holcombe stated: "Once on scene we could see the yacht was hard aground and there would be no way of refloating the yacht. As the skipper was happy to remain with his vessel we made sure all was safe and that he keep in contact with UK Coastguard and also advise them once he had refloated."