Lightning strike! Now what?

[puffcard]

Lightning will travel 5 miles through the air, it can jump a few inches in a boat with no problem.

[Nicholson58]

Took two years to sort out what was lost on our last hit. I recommend you consider adding two pole toggle (air gap) switches to all electronics. The software switches on electronics leaves the device connected to the + and - even hen off. Use the two pole switches to break both pos and neg connections. This may have spared my Simrad and it radar and depth scanner while all othe devices were smoked.

[Davidhoy]

UPDATE: Met with the insurance surveyor today, and we went through every system connected to the AC an DC electrical busses. Mostly as expected, but a few extra things are non-functional like the water maker and bow thruster. Could just be the control boards, so relatively easy to repair. The goal is to repair rather than replace things, wherever possible, as that way it will be fully covered by the insurance (less the deductible of course), as then I dint have to worry about depreciation.

Also met with a guy at a local full-service boat yard who can take on the project of getting everything back to normal. He's going to handle the electrics and such, and subcontract the electronics. I like the guy, and the yard is reputable. Hauling out on Aug 8th, probably for about three weeks. I wish I could tackle this myself, but I don't have the time or expertise, and insurance will cover getting it done professionally. He's agreed to let me participate as I can so that I can learn.

[deblen]

Originally Posted by Davidhoy

UPDATE: Met with the insurance surveyor today, and we went through every system connected to the AC an DC electrical busses. Mostly as expected, but a few extra things are non-functional like the water maker and bow thruster. Could just be the control boards, so relatively easy to repair. The goal is to repair rather than replace things, wherever possible, as that way it will be fully covered by the insurance (less the deductible of course), as then I dint have to worry about depreciation.

Also met with a guy at a local full-service boat yard who can take on the project of getting everything back to normal. He's going to handle the electrics and such, and subcontract the electronics. I like the guy, and the yard is reputable. Hauling out on Aug 8th, probably for about three weeks. I wish I could tackle this myself, but I don't have the time or expertise, and insurance will cover getting it done professionally. He's agreed to let me participate as I can so that I can learn.

This is where it gets tricky. Repair or replace?

Replace means you have 1+ yr factory warranty on new eqpt.-a definite plus.

Repair means you MAY have warranty on the parts replaced but probably not have warranty on non-replaced parts.

Labor warranty???

As a dealer/tech,I used to hate it when an adjuster wanted to mess around with "repair" . It seemed to be a no win situation,except for the ins.co. They get you to sign off at completion of repair & they're home free. You & the dealer/tech are left with the possible future problems.
Some items can be repaired because the damage is visible-hardware,chain plates,etc. Electronic boards are a different story.
I hope your dealer/tech is insistent on replacing as much as possible.
Don't be afraid to push the adjuster hard on this.He works for the ins.co. & his job is to save them money.Just the way it works.

Best of luck/ Len

[deblen]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Took two years to sort out what was lost on our last hit. I recommend you consider adding two pole toggle (air gap) switches to all electronics. The software switches on electronics leaves the device connected to the + and - even hen off. Use the two pole switches to break both pos and neg connections. This may have spared my Simrad and it radar and depth scanner while all othe devices were smoked.

Good practice-2 pole breakers/switches.

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by deblen

Good practice-2 pole breakers/switches.

Definitely going to look into doing this with all significant systems. Also looking at fuses on both positive and negative leads. Thanks!

[edmundsteele]

We were hit twice within 80 days whilst moored in Florida. On each occasion, the cable steering became magnetized. When we turned the wheel while tied up at the dock, the compass would swing. We had to have the cabling removed – twice! - and degaussed.

[anchorman]

I would call my insurance company first. They will probably tell you to have the boat hauled to inspect the hull for pinholes (they don't want the boat sinking) and then go from there.

[tkeithlu]

The toilet brush can dissipate only a tiny amount of charge. The tricky thing to understand about lightning hits is that the static charge before the strike and the strike itself act very differently. Static builds on the tallest, sharpest point in the vicinity, making your mast and golfer's heads good targets. Static charges are not dependent on conduction, which is why you can build a charge in a hairbrush. The strike itself, however, is a massive voltage and amperage, with a large surrounding field. It's going to follow the easiest (best conducting) paths available to ground. Having a well-grounded mast concentrates the conduction on a safe route, but isn't likely to cleanly go mast to grounding plate to boiling a bit of the ocean without a few side routes through your electronics, which often have antennas and grounding. The field may wipe out delicate electronics like computers even if they are isolated. So, the sharp lightning rod above all antennas on your mast might increase the chance of a hit marginally, but an isolated mast is still a prime charge accumulator. Then the game becomes supplying really good routes to ground, which is why chain plates get melted. Without a good route, the chances of blowing holes in the hull go up.

[MarkJ]

Photo of lightining actually hitting a sailing boat.

And you think a toilet brush lightning arrestor is gunna do diddly-squat???

[Cadence]

I bought a boat and it took me awhile to figure out what the wire was attached to the anchor. Apparently the former owner would lower the anchor into the water with it wired to the forestay if lightning was impending. a unique if not a cheap approach.

[jeremiason]

BoatUS wrote two great articles on Lightening Strikes in 2010 and 2015 (See links below).

Both articles address lightening strikes, statistically (based on insurance claims), what to do if you are hit and what to look for.

A couple of things that were interesting in the articles were:

Multi Hull Sailboats have almost twice the chance of being hit by lightening as a Mono Hull Sailboat.

Boats over 40 feet are three times more likely (6 out of 1000 chances) to be hit by lightening than smaller boats (2 or less chances per 1000)

Static Dissipaters (Brushes on top of the mast) don't work.


Here are the links:
Your Boat's Been Hit By Lightning - Now What? - Seaworthy - BoatUS

Striking Lightning Facts - Seaworthy Magazine - BoatUS

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Apparently the former owner would lower the anchor into the water with it wired to the forestay if lightning was impending. a unique if not a cheap approach.

I would wonder if the wire he used as a bridge would be able to take the heat of 1 Million Volts or more...

A friend's 42' Sailboat was struck by lightening in Mexico back in 2011.... He was at anchor at the time.

The lightening followed the anchor chain into the water.

He still lost all his electronics and electrical devices on board.

Unfortunately, the lightening also fried the chain causing it to break and the boat to end up on the beach!

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by Davidhoy

Definitely going to look into doing this with all significant systems. Also looking at fuses on both positive and negative leads. Thanks!

Fuses, GFI, breakers, etc will do diddly squat if you get a direct hit from lightening. The massive charge will overwhelm just about anything you have aboard. They are good for other reasons, but not for avoiding lightening. And do not count on lightening taking the shortest path nor an all metal path. Its path is dictated by what is coming up from the earth, not your boat. You just happen to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
We sailed through the Indian Ocean in really violent thunder storms with lightening all over the place. Never got hit, at least not there.

Anchored in Jacksonville, FL and wham, out of a clear blue sky a scrawny bolt blew out virtually all our electronics, including epirb. All we saw was a flash of light, a whimpy bang, and the smell of fried insulation. So go figure.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by ramblinrod

Based on several unsafe processes you described, and suggested someone else follow, you should pay the $100/ hr to keep you, your crew, and your boat safe from electrical fire until you learn how to troubleshoot and repair electrical systems properly.

Certified Raymarine Installer

I fixed a Raymarine radar on another boat in 20 minutes (for a beer) after the 'Certified Raymarine Installer' racked up an $800 bill and held up the boat in Honolulu for 3 weeks without finding the problem. The $100/hr guy didn't know that most sailboats have a terminal strip connection in the radar cable near the mast step so they can pull the mast. He unmounted and shipped all the radar modules back to the mainland for testing (they were fine). I cleaned the contacts on the terminal strip.