B
Brad Cavedo
Our H P42 was stuck by lightening at about 5:15 Saturday morning. We were awake at the time in the aft cabin. We were about 1 hour into a storm that flashed lightening about every 2 or 3 seconds. In 20 years of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay [in a H36c prior to the 1997 P42] we have never been struck to our knowledge.In April of this year we had an ion dissipater installed on top of the mast. Did it work or did it attract the strike??? Who knows.We had virtually no damage. The autohelm ST7000 pilot does not engage and does not receive data from the GPS, but the other Sea Talk functions still work. The anchor light works, but a cabin light that used a dimmer blew out the dimmer. The TV antenea works fine as does the wind indicator and the VHF. But when we were hit, sparks rained down on both sides of the boat. So what was that? The inverter/charger, which was on at the time, seems to work fine as does the TV and microwave and airconditioning. So one light and a blown something on the auto pilot seems to be it. Maybe the sparks were the ions dissipating just as the bolt approached?? Who knows.If we had come down on saturday morning instead of friday night, we would just think the aupo pilot broke and would never have known about the lightening strike, because it left no trace.