VOLUNTEER crew members from Criccieth RNLI have staked their claim to have formed the tallest ever RNLI lifeboat crew.

During a recent training exercise on the station’s Atlantic 85 class lifeboat it dawned on the volunteer crew members involved that the shortest among them was Nigel Wright at six foot three inches tall.

Nigel was the baby of the four-man inshore lifeboat crew, alongside even loftier crew members Dafydd Thomas, who is six foot four inches, Helm David O’Neill at six foot five inches and Ifer Gwyn, who is the tallest of them all at six foot seven and a quarter inches.

Ifer, who is also Criccieth RNLI’s lifeboat press officer, said: “It was a routine Thursday evening exercise and I just noticed as were kitting out that we were all on the tall side.

“It made us wonder whether the RNLI charity had ever put out an entire lifeboat crew with such an average height? Maybe it’s all the rain we get out west!”

If Nigel, Dafydd, David and Ifer lay head to toe they would stretch 7.7m – only just shy of the 8.44m length of their Atlantic 85 lifeboat Doris Joan.

Ifer added: “The crew here in Criccieth is made up of volunteers of all shapes and sizes and training is vital to us all, but it just so happened that the four of us crewing the Atlantic 85 for the exercise last week were the tallest of the bunch.”