The original 1869 boathouse held a pulling-and-sailing lifeboat, the kind of craft that demanded ten or twelve oarsmen rowing in line through the worst weather the Irish Sea could throw at them. In 1894 the operation shifted across the bay to a new site on the south shore and was rechristened Penryndhu after the dark-rocked headland that shelters it. A watch room was bolted onto the boathouse in 1897. The Penryndhu station closed in 1931, made redundant when a motor lifeboat stationed elsewhere could cover the same stretch of coast in a fraction of the time. The 1894 building still stands and is known locally as the old lifeboat station, a sturdy reminder of an era when rescue meant muscle, courage, and a great deal of canvas.

Abersoch's lifeboat work resumed in 1965, when the RNLI brought back an inflatable D-class boat designed for the surf-zone rescues that had become the staple of summer emergency work. The new craft were small, fast, and very wet, perfect for hauling capsized dinghy sailors and stranded windsurfers out of the bay. By 1978 demand had outgrown the D-class and the station upgraded to the larger and faster B-class Atlantic 21. In 1987 the boathouse was extended so the launching tractor could be kept permanently coupled to the trolley, knocking precious minutes off the response time.

The current boathouse, built in 1994, brought proper crew facilities, drying rooms, and changing space into what had been a working-shed operation. The station still runs a B-class Atlantic lifeboat capable of better than thirty knots, crewed entirely by local volunteers. They go out for capsizes and broken-down powerboats, for swimmers caught in rip currents off Porth Fawr, for fishing crews in trouble around St Tudwal's, and occasionally for someone who walked too far along the beach and now finds the tide between them and the way home. The bay these volunteers watch over is one of the busiest yachting waters in north Wales, packed in summer with dinghies and family cruisers from the moorings off Abersoch Sailing Club. Most of the calls end quickly and without drama; some do not. The 1869 commitment, given an injection of fibreglass and outboard horsepower, carries on.