Lighting & Sailboats

Lightning & Sailboats

This just came up on the Ericson Sailnet list and as there are many here that do not always look into that list, I thought I'd post the site for those who might have missed it. I thought it very good.

http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/flsgp/flsgpg92001.pdf

Interesting, but it doesn't identify the safest part of the boat. I would guess the v-berth.

Not an Ericson story

but a good lightning yarn. This article will warm the hearts of the Atomic 4 fans out there.

John McPhee is a writer and an acquaintance of mine - last time I heard from him a couple years ago he was on the Intracoastal headed north towards Maine in an old wooden sailing craft called Water Music.

The Craig mentioned in the story is yours truly (and Cheryl is my ex-).

Enjoy.

PS - the article was originally published in 48 Degrees North, a Northwest sailing magazine.

Ka-pow!

The wirery item hanging on the railing in the photo is the former VHF aerial from our friend's C&C 37. They were in the slip Saturday night when lightning struck. The antenna fell from the top of the mast down across a finger pier and wrapped itself around the amidship safety railing of their slipmate's cabin cruiser. It left scratch type marks on the stainless railing. Immediately after the strike the boat swayed significantly from side to side. You can just barely see the base of the aerial near the bottom of the frame.

In addition most of their electronics were trashed and an indicator light on the power distribution panel shattered pieces across the cabin. The air conditioner kept running continuously, ignoring the thermostat setting. Later in the day three adjacent boats reported various degrees of electronics damage.

It's worth noting that the target C&C 37 had one of those bottle brush looking charge dissipators installed on the top of the mast, identical to the one I installed on our boat.

I had a disconcerting experience a couple of months ago. While seated in the saloon, up near the bulkhead, a bolt (small) of lightning "bounced" off the aft rail and struck me in the arm. Interestingly, it came right in the open cabin and travelled laterally about six feet to strike me.

No real harm occurred, but I'll tell you what, I have a new-found respect for thunderstorms! :unsure: