Porthdinllaen History

1864 The RNLI established a lifeboat station and a boathouse and slipway were built at Porthdinllaen Point.

1888 A new boathouse and slipway were built on the same site.

1925 The boathouse was extended and the slipway lengthened to 351ft.

1926 The station's first motor lifeboat arrived.

1951 A Silver Medal was awarded to Second Coxswain William Dop for rescuing three people from the yacht Waterbell close to Porth Oer. In breaking water and an increasing wind he took the lifeboat between the yacht and the rocks so that three lifeboat crew could jump aboard. He then brought the lifeboat out stern first and returned to station nearly six hours after launching.

1964 A Centenary Vellum was awarded to the station.

1975 Coxswain Griffith J Jones was on leave when he watched the lifeboat launch to search for two people lost from a tender of a yacht. In the light of a turning car he spotted a man clinging to a rock north of the boathouse. In a strong gale and rough sea he launched the station's boarding boat, with his 14-year-old son Eric, and reached the exhausted man and pulled him to safety aboard the boat. Coxswain Griffith J Jones was awarded a Bronze Medal and his son an inscribed wristwatch for this service on 20 September 1974.

1977 A Bronze Medal was awarded to Crew Member Glyn Roberts and the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to Second Coxswain Scott for rescuing a boy trapped 80ft up a cliff face at Porth-y-Nant. They went ashore from the lifeboat in the boarding boat between dangerous rocks in an eight-foot swell. Glyn climbed up the cliff face to bring the boy to safety. A second boy was also rescued from the beach.

1981 A Bronze Medal was awarded to Second Coxswain Michael Massarelli for the rescue of two men who had been thrown into a rough sea when their inflatable dinghy capsized.

1987 The station was adapted for the Tyne class lifeboat, ON-1120 Hetty Rampton, which arrived on station on 27 April.

2006 It was decided that the station would get a Tamar class lifeboat to replace its Tyne class lifeboat in due course.

Station honours

At Porthdinllaen lifeboat station the following awards have been made:

Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum 1
Bronze Medal 3
Silver Medal 1