TOW ROPE PARTED Troon, Ayrshire. At 10.15 a-m- on ist October, 1963, a pilot told the honorary secretary that a motor boat was burning flares about two miles north-west of Troon harbour. The life-boat James and Barbara Aitken left her moorings at 10.40 in a gentle west-north-westerly breeze and moderate sea. It was two hours before high water. The life-boat found the motor boat Corsair with a crew of three with her engine broken down. The lifeboat took the Corsair in tow and reached Troon harbour at 11.15. It was later learnt that when the Corsair's engine had broken down she had been taken in tow by the motor boat Lady Clare. But the tew rope had parted and fouled the Lady Clare's propeller and both boats had drifted apart at dusk the previous day.

Both boats had been adrift throughout the night. The Lady Clare was found by an I.C.I, vessel and towed into Ardrossan harbour..