Lightening

[Gary Ryan]

We recently sailed our Hunter 386 through a pretty nasty thunder/lightening storm on Lake Erie. Looking for some advice. We shut off all electronics except for GPS and VHF radio. We locked the steering wheel and went down below. Figure by shutting down the electronics it might save them? What's everyone else opinion when going through a storm?

 

[David in Sandusky]

If your boat is hit by lightning, you will probably lose all of your electronics that are not stored in a metal box (whether they are off or on.) Putting a handheld gps and radio in a metal box is a reasonable safeguard.

On our boat, the shrouds form a cage that protects us at the helm. Not sure what the lack of a backstay on the B&R rig does to this protection.

Grounding your mast to your keel reduces the possibility of damage to your hull.

Our best protection over 23 summers has been using weather forecasts and weather radar to stay in port when thunder storms are possible. In the summer, this means getting off the lake before 4 PM to avoid pop up storms. As a result, we have only been caught under weigh in a thunder storm once in around 500 days on the lakes.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

If living in Florida teaches us anything - ground the mast and have good insurance. The rest is conjecture.
and just to be picky, it’s “lightning”, not “lightening”

 

[sail sfbay]

If caught unexpected and too far from a safe moorage in a lightning storm, shutting down electronics, turning on portable handheld vhf radio and gps and going down below appears to be the prevailing logic.

Lots of good discussion on what to do in this article: What to Do in a Lightning Storm on a Boat | Boating Mag
National Boating Council caution and recommendations: Safe Boating and Thunderstorms (weather.gov)

 

[jon hansen]

prayer has always been my go to protection from lightning and tornados on the great lakes.

 

[JamesG161]

ground the mast and have good insurance

and Isolate yourself.
Going below and leaving your Helm unattended is NOT a good thing.
____
Search for LIGHTNING on this site. Plenty of advice.
Jim...

 

[kloudie1]

In the years since 1978, I have been in/around many thunderstorms in the boat. My 34 was hit in the marina many years ago. All electronics were off; I lost the VHF and antenna, an internal fuse in the LORAN (was fine after fuse replacement), the stern running light bulb (not the bow light on the same circuit). It exploded the nav light breaker on the way to the green shore power wire. It exploded (literally pieces everywhere) the circuit indicator bulbs on the switch panel. Everything is grounded to the keel, including the pulpits.
My Spirit 23 was hit shortly after I sold it .. exploded the light bulbs everywhere and exited the hull in a few places, leaving places where the plastic resin had been removed from the composite; resulting in a weepy gauze that would have sunk the boat had they not put it on the hard quickly. They were on the boat he, at the helm, she down below.. both unhurt.
Ground everything!

 

[shemandr]

I have no reason to think this but I've comforted myself when caught out by believing that a moving target is less likely to get hit than a stationary object.
I have read that lightning needs to induce a large static charge in the area around the boat or moving object in order to strike. Maybe that's why I'm unaware of any lightning strike to a boat underway.

 

[kloudie1]

No to be argumentative, but I saw a J-30 get hit while underway. We were leaving Gulfport Ms. for a race to Pensacola; the J was about 100 yards or less in front of us in light rain; the storm had kinda moved along and we had a line of boats moving toward the start area. The bolt hit the mast top and fried everything up there; we saw the burning debris flying. No one on board was hurt, they continued with the race ..

 

[shemandr]

That's not argumentative - it's just a fact. Now I am aware of at least one incident.

 

[JamesG161]

I am an expert in Lightning protection.
I was taught many years ago by people who protect things like Water Towers.

Here is my best advice..

"Several types of sciences involved.
List in order of your ability to control them...
1) Electrical (flow of electrons)
2) Math (statistics)
3) Religion

If you combine all 3 you can reduce your chances of being a target.
In a nutshell...
1) Ground your boat and Isolate yourself
2) Buy Insurance
3) Pray it doesn't hit you"

____
Best Discussion on this subject is here...
newbie lightning protection?

Long thread but good.

Good Avoidance from Lightning in the future.
Jim...

PS: It does make a difference when sailing on Fresh Water[ok] versus Salt Water[best].

 

[Gary Ryan]

Sorry Don for the spelling...dang spellcheck! All good information. We had about an 8 hour trip that day. Looking at the radar we were all clear for the day. It came in fast and there was no where to hide. At least we got a good story out of it.