EMERGENCY services personnel were summoned to Port Glasgow on Saturday after a man rowed out to retrieve a dinghy.
The vessel was spotted floating unmanned in the water near to Newark Castle around 10am.
A man was then observed rowing out in another vessel to investigate.
Police officers, Helensburgh lifeboat personnel and Greenock coastguard crews attended the scene.
Emergency services crews established that the owner had used another boat to sail out and retrieve the dinghy.
Police, coastguard and lifeboat personnel co-ordinated the safe return of the man and the two vessels to the pier.
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