Arbroath won their first point of the season and kept their first clean sheet in nine attempts - but will feel they should have taken more from a game in which they created the better chances.
A strong breeze blowing from one end of the pitch to the other turned Gayfield Park into a wind tunnel and ruined any chance of free-flowing football, although both teams created goalscoring chances.
The first chance came after seven minutes when Arbroath's Neil Inglis tried to drive a Steven Rennie backpass upfield. However, his clearance hit Stewart Kean, who luckily for Inglis, screwed his chance wide.
Despite playing into a gale, Arbroath hit back and went on to have the best efforts of the first half with Gavin Swankie turning a low Paul Farquharson cross over the bar while under pressure, and Farquharson then firing in an effort across goal from 18 yards just wide.
The bizarre nature of the conditions were then highlighted when an attempted clearance forward by Rennie from the edge of his box resulted in an Ayr corner.
The second half saw the Smokies look to take advantage of the wind, and they started sharply with good play by Swankie out wide resulting in a cross by Greig Henslee, whose effort was saved by John Hillcoat.
Midway through the half the game sprung into life with three chances coming in the space of a minute. First Inglis produced a double save from efforts by Paddy Connolly and Craig Conway before Smokies broke upfield and Swankie fired over after cutting inside the Honest Men's William Lyle.
Lyle's afternoon was cut short in the 86th minutes for a second bookable offence, but Arbroath could not turn their numerical advantage into a goal.
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