Great article. Just a couple thoughts from personal experience.
Lightening is very fickle. One never really knows where it will strike or
what. I sailed my own boat in the Pacific for a few years and was sometimes
in a lightening storm, but was never hit. Often it isnt the tallest or the
most obvious object. Even with a properly grounded boat lightening can cause
damage.
However, I once had to fly from Seattle to Costa Rica with several thousand
dollars of replacement instruments when a boat down there was hit by
lightening. The boat had all the proper grounding with the rod on the mast,
the heavy cable, etc, but most of the instruments were fried as were a
couple GPS handhelds and at least one radio (yes the antennas were
disconnected during the storm). What fried the electronics we think were the
huge energy fields generated by the lightening strike, not the strike
itself. The boat was OK because when we commissioned her in Seattle we made
and installed a rather large bronze backed zinc grounding plate on the hull
specifically for a lightening ground (we made this with a piece of ¼ or 3/8
inch naval bronze bedded and bolted through the hull. On the protruding
studs we then placed large zinc which we drilled to fit onto the studs
measured 3X6 inches (give or take) if memory serves me right).
My point is that regardless of all the lightening precautions and following
all the proper procedures, there was enough energy to take out the
electronics. The lightening strike itself went directly between the water
and the top of the mast, so no damage to the hull or spar, but there was
enough energy radiating around the strike to cause the other damage to the
electronics.
By the way, dont bond a lightening ground to a bronze thru-hull as your
only ground. If the thru-hull is too small it could literally be blown apart
boats have sunk because of this. Years ago one boat I saw had the ground
to a bolt inserted in the ballast. But the keel was fiberglass enclosed
