Question about Lightning

[boasun]

If you are that worried about it when moored for the night. Then attach a set of jumper cables to the shrouds and dunk the other end of said cables into the drink.
And stay away from the mast/shrouds/stays. Thus you are grounded and the mast is your lightening rod.

[Teeto]

Originally Posted by boasun

If you are that worried about it when moored for the night. Then attach a set of jumper cables to the shrouds and dunk the other end of said cables into the drink.
And stay away from the mast/shrouds/stays. Thus you are grounded and the mast is your lightening rod.

Isn't that a bit like saying "Come and get me!" - here's an easy path to the water - pick me, pick me.

[boasun]

Was on a steel boat and it was hit by lightening. blew out the SSB antenna, the antenna tuner and the main boards in the SSB. Before it went to ground through the steel hull. Yup! it made life interesting at that moment.
But if you have a solid ground plate and proper ground connections to that plate you shouldn't have any problems. Except for an antenna hit. But all you lose is the antenna and radio as that strike goes to ground.
The properly grounded mast and standing rigging will protect you as long as you are not touching them.
And a lightening shunt in your antenna leads may help there also. But haven't seen them in action yet.

[cabo_sailor]

Isn't that a bit like saying "Come and get me!" - here's an easy path to the water - pick me, pick me

What I've read, and their is a great deal of conflicting stuff out there is this. If the boat is properly bonded to ground you increase the chance of taking a hit but decrease the chance of damage. An unbonded boat has a lesser chance of being hit but an increased chance of damage, e.g., blowing your bronze thru-hulls out the bottom. My boat is bonded, came that way, so that's what I use. Don't know if its best or not. Dealing with lightning, as far as I'm concerned, goes beyond simple electricity, they are still doing research. There are plasma effects, and I recently read that the durn things are also capable of creating anti-matter in the upper atmosphere. So in the end, you pays your money and takes your choice. By the way, I do know of a couple of boats at the marina that have cable jumpers attached either to the shrouds or the mast. At dock, they dump the ends into the water. The last hit at our marina was about 10 years ago.

Rich

[GordMay]

A car IS a safe place to be, during a lightning storm - NOT because the tires insulate the cab, but BECAUSE the cab acts as a Faraday’s Cage, diverting any lightning strike safely to ground (through your tires); similar to the protection provided by a proper lightning bonding system on a boat.

Disconnect all wires to electronics (as far as practicable), including power supply & antennae. Separate disconnected cables as far as practicable from equipment. Store equipment in oven (or other Faraday Cage), if possible. Don't touch metal. Enjoy the sound & light show.

[SaucySailoress]

In this Faraday cage, is it important for the equipment to be insulated from the side of the 'cage'? I mean, inside our oven, the sides are just as metal as the outside....

[capn_billl]

Theoretically no, the principle of a faraday cage is charges are equal inside a conductor. But as high voltage arcs like lightening have a RF component small localized charges can occur since a 1/4 wavelength conductor acts like an insulator. Also the conductive properties of most faraday cages are not perfect, so the effect is also not perfect. I.E. a steel car with large windows instead of a solid copper sphere. Yes a faraday cage does not have to be solid, but the bigger the holes the more high frequency energy can go through.

To answer the OP the jumper cables by themselves may not provide a low enough resistance to ground. Attaching them to a copper plate, or a length of conductor may be better.

[GordMay]

More or less what Bill said.
It couldn't hurt to set the electronics on/in an insulating container (tupperwear?).

There's no insulating against a lightning strike, but you might avoid some "induced" damage.

[barnakiel]

I would still disconnect from the dock if I were in the boat. Why chance your boat systems to the chance that marina fuses are good enough?

b.

[cabo_sailor]

Question Gord,

Would a steel hulled or aluminum hulled boat make a natural Faraday cage?

Rich

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by cabo_sailor

Would a steel hulled or aluminum hulled boat make a natural Faraday cage?
Rich

Yes, indeed.

[LEOCAT66]

I recently discovered some strange happenings after a violent frontal passage here in South Louisiana. Lightning hit very near our boat, the noise was astounding. We were in the house, about 50' from the boat when it hit. The hot water heater in the house blew an element and there was one blackened 110 outlet plate. The boat showed no outward signs of damage at first. The mast top was visually in tact. A few hours later we discovered that two good time radios had been damaged. One was a 110 and the other 12 volt. Neither works now. The really strange issue is that the Anchor Light is out. The tri Color is working on full red only with a 1/2 green and no white. Both are DR. LED. All other Nav lights, also DR LED, are working perfect. At the time the shore power had been unplugged at the pole, as was the cord at the boat, and all 12 volt power was off. Truly a puzzle to me. Any thoughts?

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by LEOCAT66

I recently discovered some strange happenings after a violent frontal passage here in South Louisiana. Lightning hit very near our boat, the noise was astounding. We were in the house, about 50' from the boat when it hit. The hot water heater in the house blew an element and there was one blackened 110 outlet plate. The boat showed no outward signs of damage at first. The mast top was visually in tact. A few hours later we discovered that two good time radios had been damaged. One was a 110 and the other 12 volt. Neither works now. The really strange issue is that the Anchor Light is out. The tri Color is working on full red only with a 1/2 green and no white. Both are DR. LED. All other Nav lights, also DR LED, are working perfect. At the time the shore power had been unplugged at the pole, as was the cord at the boat, and all 12 volt power was off. Truly a puzzle to me. Any thoughts?

This does not strike me (no pun intended) as at all unusual. It is likely that either your mast took a partial hit, or that the equipment was damaged by proximity to the lightning. I've heard of equipment "still in the box" being damaged by a nearby strike. We have friends who were struck a year or so ago, and they are still finding things that don't work.

[LEOCAT66]

Thanks for the response Bill. I guess we were lucky, but the damage probably will run a bit. We are not bonded and have never been, and have never been hit before. From what I have been reading lately, it seems that the current thinking on bonding may be changing to non- bonded. We do have a static dissipater, mast top. The really strange thing to me is the Tri-Color. Only 1/2 Green working and no white, while the red is totally fine. I wonder if WHITE LEDs are more prone as the Anchor Light is gone too?

[psneeld]

EMP...electromagnetic pulse...generated by a nearby lightening strike....generates surges in nearby electrical wiring...whether hooked to anything or not.