Com-Pac Yacht Owners Association

I picked up a closeout pair of Gill rain bibs, and a jacket in case rain comes in while I'm out sailing. With proper layering it should also work well in colder weather to extend the season.

At home today it was really pouring so I decided to try the gear out to see how well it worked. With the double closures on the wrists snugged down, jacket zippered and hood out and adjusted I didn't get wet at all and it was comfortable to wear. It occurred to me that if I can deal with the rain it really was a nice day to sail... nice steady breeze, no lightening and comfortable temperature. I'd need boots (wearing Teva's today) but I'm considering heading out next day like this which is not how I have ever thought of rain and sailing before.

Anyone else do this and if so any tips for a rookie rainy day sailer?

If things went poorly I could always drop anchor and warm up/dry off with the wood stove.

Between the Gill stuff and the drifter I'm looking forward to rain and light air days..... might be a sign I'm loosing it a little. :)

Shawn

   Makes sense to me if you can cool off. Down here this time of year, rain is often accompanied by lightning and we all know about how much fun it is to sail with lightning, don't we.
   Personally, I like sun and blue skies but eventually, we'll all get caught out in the rain so why not try it out intentionally?
Bob23 

I got caught in the rain last fall, and the only thing I had was a wet weather Columbia top, and a pair of neoprene gloves.  I was dry and warm from the waist up, but soaked and froze from the waist down.  Brother when your feet or head is cold, you are cold all over.  Since I didn't have a lot of money, I got a set of Frogg Toggs with the bib style pants for Christmas.  That set came with it's own waterproof bag, and works real well.  I'm a lake sailor, so can get away with cheap for right now, till I can do something better.  You are so right, get a good pair of boots on a cool day, they are worth their weight in gold.  Neoprene (sp?) gloves are real cozy too.

BobD

Bob,

"we'll all get caught out in the rain so why not try it out intentionally? "

That is my thinking and this way I can pick the rain instead of having it handed to me. Might be fun, probably have a lot of the bay to myself too.

Shawn

BobD,

"You are so right, get a good pair of boots on a cool day, they are worth their weight in gold.  Neoprene (sp?) gloves are real cozy too."

Thanks for confirmation on the boots. Gloves are a great idea, my hands get cold/numb pretty easily too.

Shawn

Love to sail in rain as long as there is no lightning.

Steady breeze and nice an cool.

I have been out in the rain and even snow a few times.  Most of the days I am getting on the water, other boaters are getting off the water.  It is nice to have the place to your self.  I have a pair of Gill sailing boots and also upgraded to a good foul weather jacket and bibs.  I leave the lightning alone but rainy conditions are part of sailing for me.  I keep a close eye on the weather forecast and have a weather radio to monitor current and changing conditions.  I always take extra changes of worm clothing and shoes if needed.  I hang my sails and lines up in the car port when I get home.  Any day at the lake beets a day at work!

Rich

  yes i have concluded that this guy "rich" is indeed a SAILOR

   Once, back in my Seapearl days, I set sail on a hot August afternoon here in NJ. No forecast of rain or inclement weather. About  1/2 hour after I left my home port of Surf City, I saw this squall come off the mainland and head across the bay. In minutes, I was surrounded by torential rain and lightning, not fun being in an open sailboat with 2 aluminum masts sticking up.
   Some friends of mine, from the safety of thier bayfront home, upon looking out into the storm, remarked: "Who is that idiot out sailing in an electrical storm?". That'd be me.
bob23...glad to be alive.

Bob, you were doubly safe in your two cones of protection from the top'o mast.  A veritable Faraday cage.

TG

Tim - my understanding from reading about lightning strikes is that the "cone of protection" may mean YOU won't get hit directly by lightning, but the MAST could still get hit meaning anything from serious rigging or spar damage to a hull puncture. So, you won't die from electrocution but you might die from drowning. Is that correct?

It's always fun to have one more thing to worry about :).

- Wes

Wes - Correct-o-mundo.

Wes asks: my understanding from reading about lightning strikes is that the "cone of protection" may mean YOU won't get hit directly by lightning, but the MAST could still get hit meaning anything from serious rigging or spar damage to a hull puncture. So, you won't die from electrocution but you might die from drowning. Is that correct?

I have been giving this lightening business some thought.
Sure; get hit by lightning at the top-o-mast and it's possible that the mast could be blown clean through the bottom of the boat. More likely the hull will be penetrated with millions of tiny fisher cracks that could allow the sea to sweep in. Since you won't have any electrics left, the manual pump may or may not keep up. That's if you have not started to assume room temperature yet. [died]

A guy could do the following:
~Use the stern standing rigging [not on a CP-16] from the top-o-mast to the stern chain plate.
~From the chain plate weld on a '0' sized lug and affix with resin and flair-in on the outside of the hull a '0' sized cable down the backside of the transom.
~Following the aft curve of the bilge to the flat bottom of the keel.
~Now I have a marine grade 6mm aluminum 'Keel Boot' glued to my flat bottom of the keel which is where an '0' sized cable lug could be welded on.

The lighting follows the path of least resistance and that would be the standing rigging cable, the '0' sized cable down under the boat to the boot and safely into the sea.

That's the idea anyway, probably end up swimming.

skip.

So many possible outcomes; so many different theories about how lightning behaves; what's a sailor to do?

There's one CERTAINTY however, if lightning strikes my boat: even if we survive, it will be my wife's last time on the boat :).

- Wes

Quote from: Wes on February 14, 2012, 04:02:45 PM
So many possible outcomes; so many different theories about how lightning behaves; what's a sailor to do?

There's one CERTAINTY however, if lightning strikes my boat: even if we survive, it will be my wife's last time on the boat :).

- Wes

I hear that :)

Hey I sailed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for years.  During the summer it wasn't if the thunder squall would come it was when.  It always worried me, but I never heard of anyone getting hit.  I read with great interest every article that came out about protection from a lightning strike, then the usual disclaimer, that no one really knows what is best.  So I guess I'll just go with the statistical reality that I'm more likely to catch it in a car wreck going to the marina then in the boat hit by lightning.

   The cones of protection might have been protecting me, but I was scarred poopless!!!!
   A few years ago, my friends Morgan 30 was struck while at  her mooring. she went down in about 6 feet of water, was hauled early the next morning before the feds could show up and accuse him of diesel spill, which  did not happen. When she was hauled, there were 2 perfectly round 3/8" holes directly opposite each other below the waterline. The pumps kept up until the batteries ran down.
   My freind Dennis has restored her perfectly and she is better than ever. I guess the best one can do is install a bonding plate and a designated cable from the mast, each stay and shroud and stanchions and hope for the best.
   My father in law, a master of improv, would keep a pair of jumper cables aboard. During a lightning threat, he'd clamp one end of each cable to the mast and throw the other end into the water. I guess it was better than nothing.
bob23

A good pair of automotive Jumper cables aboard and clamped onto a chainplate and over the side was one possible solution to lightening...this was talked about in Bob Burgess's Handbook of Trailer Sailing.

One of our USPS club members had his 34 foot sailboat, on the hard with the mast up was struck by lightning. About a million tiny little cracks in the fiberglass and two blown out holes out the bottom hull going to ground

skip.

"My freind Dennis has restored her perfectly and she is better than ever. I guess the best one can do is install a bonding plate and a designated cable from the mast, each stay and shroud and stanchions and hope for the best."

I'd think clamped to the mast is far better than going to a shroud. If you clamped to the shroud it should be the 'path of least resistance' but only until the amperage fries it then it is going somewhere else and your mast may be on its way down. Even if the shroud didn't burn up that much current is going to heat it which is going to make the resistance in the shroud jump up so that the current may seek alternate routes. Remember too that electricity does not just follow a single 'path of least resistance' but can and will branch out taking multiple paths.... the resistance in each path determines how much current will flow in each path. This is why lightning has forks and splits in it.

Shawn

I have a great book entitled: "Sailboat Electrics Simplified". It has a great section on lightning protection and is a really great little book to have in one's boating book library.
bob23

Not all the good sailing days are clear blue skies.  I found an older photo from a trip to a lake close by.  Note the wet pavement, empty parking lot, tree tops bending, clouds roiling by, and the flag on the end of my mast.

(http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy171/ABV83cp16/Miscellaneous/0511081258b.jpg)

I would say that you can have a good time sailing when conditions are less than ideal, or at least I do.  I like that phrase "It is better to be on shore wishing you were out there, than out there wishing you were on shore."  That always goes through my mind when casting off in less than ideal conditions.  I have pulled my boat all the way to the lake, closely watched the actual conditions, and headed back to the house a few times.  I aim to stay within my limits to have a safe trip.  I prefer to single hand sail my small boat on those kinds of days because I know what I think is fun, exciting, and challenging, may not be for other guest.  I would certainly like to have someone along if they were comfortable with that kind of experience.

The lightning and sail boat topic is something I would like to learn more about.  I have read in some boat owners manuals that mention lightning.  I think that at least some manufactures simply look at lightning protection systems as an owner's aftermarket responsibility, or option.  I think mostly because of the liabilities.  No guarantees with Mother Nature for one.  A safety system must be properly installed, maintained, inspected, and maybe even certified.  Certainly there are different ideas, conditions, and applications.  None of the boats I sail or have seen where I live have any kind of lightning protection system.  Maybe Lightning Protection needs its' own topic?   Thanks Bob23 for posting a reference.   I am curious what you other sailors have seen, experienced, or done to your boats for lightning protection.
Rich

   Maybe the publisher will let me post the chapter on lightning protection here at the site. I don't know if it's copyright infringement and I'd rather not find out.
   The recent Good Old Boat magazine had an article about his LED bulbs blowing out as a result of a nearby lightning event. Note, it did not hit his boat but due to an electrical surge which is inherent in lightning, some of the LED's did not survice. Makes one think twice about LED's. I'm gonna get 'em anyway.
   Rich: Ain't it true that conditions are rarely excellent? That's what makes is so great...we have to deal with what we're given instead of just dialing in "perfect".
The boat looks great! 
   Bob23
       

Best sailing is 'tween two storms while things are still stirred up.

I've seen 40+ mile an hour winds that shredded the UV strip off the head sail and pulled both head sheets clean past the stopper knots and had them dangling and twisting and knotting out front of the bow sprit. What a mess. I guess I should have bare poled it a tad sooner. Had the main sheet totally relaxed with boom and sail plastered against the starboard stay and the rudder pulled into the wind only to be held a beam of the wind at 6 knots on the GPS chartplotter. But not healed over too much.

Hail stones that left welts on my neck and arms that forced my CP-19 backwards while heading into the worst wind yet with my 5hp O/B at half throttle just to maintain steerage with all sails rolled in. Could not see past the bow of the boat and watched Green Island come dangerously close on the chartplotter. Saw a double rainbow in full sun ten minutes later. But the boat was covered with frozen balls of ice. And I looked like Dolly Parton after my auto inflat-or popped off. Must have driven the rain into the PFD.

Luckily both storms were of short duration.

skip.

Sailing in controlled conditions other than ideal is a great learning experience.   "Been there, done that," are comforting thoughts in stressful times.  Rain and a bit of wind coupled with glasses make for blurry seeing, especially low to the water - CP-16 - and I carry ski-goggles that fit over my specs.  Non-fogging and comfortable. 

Lightning is bad.  In many years on the water I've experienced two near misses and a neighboring catboat hit nearby.  The owner was in my cabin drinking coffee.  I called him over before the storm threw him around in his little inflatable dinghy.  Damage was heavy.  Handheld electronics in a metal box were toasted and most of the woodwork charred.  Mast ruined and fiberglass hull looked like tempered glass.  Neither of us are profane men but we spoke plainly after viewing his once Bristol-fashion Marshall Cat.

I still hang out jumper cables - but place my hope in Chance.