THE crew of two sailing dinghies, launched from Prestwick beach this weekend, caused alarm when they did not return from their trip on Saturday.

Troon lifeboat were made aware of the overdue boats from a concerned member of the public, at 12.39am on Sunday, July 23, as he had seen the dinghies launch on Saturday morning.

The crew had not returned and their cars were parked nearby.

The volunteer crew attended at the lifeboat station and soon launched all-weather lifeboat ‘RNLB Jim Moffat’ and D class inshore lifeboat ‘Telford Shopping Centre’ to assist in the search initially conducting a search south towards Prestwick.

Ayr, Ardrossan, Girvan and Arran Coastguard Rescue Teams as well as Girvan and Arran lifeboats were also involved. Ayrshire police made enquiries.

With little information known about the destination of the sailing dinghies, the search area covered a large area so the lifeboat crews were using all available on board search equipment including searchlight, night sights and white illuminating parachute flares to assist in their search.

As more information came to light, a further search area was established by Belfast Coastguard with the all-weather boat covering a search from Prestwick towards Arran.

At first light, Coastguard helicopter Rescue 199 from Prestwick was tasked to assist in the search.

At 5am, information came through from the search teams that 2 sailing dinghies had been located on Arran that matched the description of those missing and further enquiries were undertaken by Coastguard and Police on the island.

It was soon established that all persons were safe and well ashore in Arran and at no time needed any assistance.

Satisfied that this call was a false alarm with good intent, the lifeboats and all other search teams were stood down by Belfast Coastguard with the crew returning to station shortly after 6am.