lightning protection system

[fried fish]

Lately I have been pondering about having some sort of lightning protection system on our Compac 23.
I recall reading about metal cables connected to mast and loose ends placed overboard in water during a storm.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Has anybody out there lived to tell how well their idea worked?
Just curious.
The OS plan would be good to have in place.
FF

[HeaveToo]

There are a lot of theories about this out there.

1 group says that if you aren't grounded you don't have as much of a risk of being hit.

1 group says that you should ground the system and describes proper ways of grounding it.

the last group suggests a Lightning Master Static Dissipator:  http://www.landfallnavigation.com/dissipaters.html?cmp=froogle&kw=dissipaters&utm_source=dissipaters&utm_medium=shopping%2Bengine&utm_campaign=froogle

I have never grounded my mast and never had a dissipator.  I have heard of stories of other boats being struck by lightning in a marina and then the other boats around it got hit.  The biggest take home on this is to have good insurance and stay away from the rigging during a storm!  There are no guarantees.

[peterg]

When we first started over-nighting in the early nineties in our 19, I was concerned about lightning strikes when we were anchored, as some fierce storms would swoop down over the hills onto the lake that we sailed. After anchoring, I would use jumper cables with a four square foot piece of 8 mil copper foil on one end, hang the copper sheet in the water,  and attach the other end to the  shrouds. Never got lightning struck to find out whether the strike would go down the mast and shrouds and through the cable to ground. Saw a friend sink an anchored  thirty footer to a lightning strike- Bob23 remembers that incident!

[Jon898]

Whatever is done (or not done), the thing to look for (apart from not becoming part of the path to ground yourself) is to avoid having the best path being through the hull of the boat.  That would run the risk of blowing a hole in the boat, which has apparently happened particularly with boats with all the through-hulls bonded together.  I remember a friend relating how he was using the head in his Nicholson 32 in a thunderstorm when he realized that he was wedged against the aluminum mast and the most direct route to ground was probably through his "nether regions"...for some reason he suddenly started to regret that second pint of beer!

As HeaveToo notes there are plenty of theories out there, most of them conflicting.  After our home was badly damaged as the result of a lightning strike, I asked one of the electrical engineers at work (who was on a code committee for the NEC) whether lightning conductors were a good idea.  His response that if they were, the insurance companies would give you a discount for installing them makes you think.  Boats are obviously a different situation...maybe the loss prevention people at BoatUS could be a resource?

[MacGyver]

Having been struck by lightning myself, and working at a marina now for 17 years, and dealing with several boats after being struck by lightning ( the boats getting struck, I was struck while inside a building, long story....) I can firmly say that I dont think anything would help.

WHY? Well, for starters, Lightning itself is not like electricity, it is its own entity and will do what it wants, within reason. It will hit conductors, and travel a path, but not necessarily just one, it will travel several.

One boat was struck in its slip in the harbor, and it blew all the thru hulls out of it. We had (1) 3 inch line, and (2) 1.5 inch lines sucking. we were just keeping up.
We were able to get our lift down and get it out. The hull had lines all over it, and the rudder had lines and popped glass. Insurance totalled the boat out.

Another was on the lake when it happened. anchored. no one on board. It blew out all the electronics, and lights. Some wiring was replaced.

I have several others, but all similar situations, either extreme damage or light damages. The general consensus is, dont be aboard and hope for the best. not much else you can do.

I was struck in a building. I am member 1628 of LSESSI (Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Survivors International.) I have been talked to about possible TV publications, but haven't done anything yet. I am literally the only member getting better in the manner I am and I think it is strictly due to my ability to be stubborn, coupled with a understanding of how the body works, and organic/supplement healing. The others that I talk to regularly (almost daily) that I met in the group suffer greatly, with the issues running the gambit. Some recover, some don't, very similar to how boats are damaged.

I guess what I am saying is this: Worry about something else. The chances are you wont suffer a strike to the boat. And if you do, pray you aren't on it (TRUST ME......IT IS PAINFUL) and maybe you will get by with little damages. Otherwise, Insurance is a good option for sure, and hopefully they will pay to fix it. The money you spend on the systems to help will be better spent as a deductable, since if it happens once it probably wont happen again.

Just my opinion based on experiences and a giant stack of books on the theories and such of lightning....... After my strike, and when my brain returned enough, I studied lightning........ With no good doctors I had to know what was happening to me. From what I learned on the preventative side is to just not be in the situation to begin with......... BUT  I was indoors. My circumstance made me lucky, VERY lucky.

Keep a boat indoors with the mast down and such and dont use it and the chances of being struck by lightning are pretty low.

Mac

[HeaveToo]

Here you go:  http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/swlightning.asp

[skip1930]

There is a stainless steel 'fuzzy' thing that can or may dissipate a lightening bolt.

Just figure that a direct strike will blow through the whole boat ... generally fracturing the fiberglass hull and putting the boat on  the bottom.

Let's say 60 million tiny pin holes and very weak fiberglass structure that won't hold back the water.

And if anybody in the crew survives and was not touching any metal boat pieces during the strike they should consider them selves darn lucky.

For a CP-19, I dreamed up a top'O-mast strike with a 'O' size copper wire from the back stay and down to the chain plate, and turned down the transom and into the water and follow the glued on wire down the keel bulge and finally to my KEEL BOOT glued to the bottom of my keel flat.

The result? Still get a hole and sink.

Baruch Hashem! skip

[relamb]

Everything I've read on the subject just leads me to believe it's all chance.  On com-pacs however, the mast is stepped on deck, so there's no path straight down through the mast to the water, most likely the blast would travel down the shrouds and jump from the chainplates to the water.   The closest path on my CP16 and 23, which both had the flat plate aluminum rudders, would most likely be down the backstay, possibly through your wet head and arm on the tiller, and to that large submerged flat rudder plate.  So don't sit during a storm with your head close to the backstay and hang onto the tiller.  I'd get in the cabin or at least halfway between  the mast and the stays if practical.  Some people have suggested carrying jumper cables, clipping one end to the mast and dragging the other end overboard.  Instead, I have a short heavy cable with clips, and  just clip between the backstay and the rudder plate if I am in a serious lightning storm.  I hope if there's a strike it goes down the backstay to the rudder plate, and the only thing that happens is that I end up deaf.   ..but I can think of a lot worse ways to die than being on a boat at sea, so I don't worry too much about what I can't help.