Lichtenberg Figures

[Delancey]

Years ago I was delivering a sailboat and took a lighting strike that did a fair amount of damage.

We had the boat hauled for a survey and I remember that as the bottom paint dried, it revealed the surface of the hull had a patterning of what I called "little lightning bolts" etched into the surface.

Although the entire hull had the little lighting bolts all over it, they seemed to be more heavily concentrated in areas where there was metal near the hull, such at the three points of a danforth anchor lying under a quarter berth or where the engine mounts were located.

Today, after many years of not knowing they had a name, I found out they are called Lichtenberg Figures. Now you know too!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenberg_figure#

[SaltyMonkey]

Delancey

Thank you for sharing this. I was wondering what this was recently.

[MarkJ]

That is just the weirdest thing i have even seen!
I just dud a google image search on Lichtenberg figure and its just crazy what it does to people and animals!

Must be painful.

Wonder how long it takes to heal?

[Delancey]

Found a picture of a boat bottom that looks similar except we had thousands of them all over and they were smaller and had little divots taken out of the gel coat in the center. Boat was a racer that had a balsa core below the waterline that was wet which may have been a factor.

[Delancey]

The whole night was cloud to cloud strikes that would light up the entire sky. We didn't get zapped until the next morning when things had mellowed out. I was on deck driving the boat under power in the drizzling rain. Felt like the boat was lifted verticaly out of the water. Was very strange.

[tuffr2]

Thanks for sharing - I read that they are tempoary and disipate over months.

I wonder if lightning damage to boats are also temporary....NOT!!!



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[barnakiel]

Amazing. Very interesting. New to me.

THX for sharing,
b.

[sartorst]

I was witness to a lightning strike to a boat that was only a few years old so you would not think there was moisture absorption and all the hull damage was from waterline to about 2 feet above waterline .The gelcoat looked like old cracked paint and had fiber glass fiber sticking out of every crack
Also saw a car that was struck while driving, the initial strike hit the windshield which melted a glob of glass and left the safety layer looking like he images posted earlier and killed every component that had an IC chip
NO rules for lightning!

[Djarraluda]

Originally Posted by sartorst

I was witness to a lightning strike to a boat that was only a few years old so you would not think there was moisture absorption and all the hull damage was from waterline to about 2 feet above waterline .The gelcoat looked like old cracked paint and had fiber glass fiber sticking out of every crack
Also saw a car that was struck while driving, the initial strike hit the windshield which melted a glob of glass and left the safety layer looking like he images posted earlier and killed every component that had an IC chip
NO rules for lightning!

One rule to understand lightning - It is fundamentally Lazy!. It has had a hard life getting somewhere and it wants an easy life from there on.
Seriously, it is a good way to think. If a conductor has a bend in it, life could be easier to jump the corner. If the conductor is directly connected to an HF radio grounding plate, with large cable and no sharp bends then it will be unlikely to cause much heat damage. Make it work by squeezing through a tight space, round sharp corners, or simply ending the conductive path short of the ground and - Lo and Behold, the energy vents its anger, it takes its toll.

[double u]

Originally Posted by sartorst

I was witness to a lightning strike to a boat that was only a few years old so you would not think there was moisture absorption and all the hull damage was from waterline to about 2 feet above waterline .The gelcoat looked like old cracked paint and had fiber glass fiber sticking out of every crack
Also saw a car that was struck while driving, the initial strike hit the windshield which melted a glob of glass and left the safety layer looking like he images posted earlier and killed every component that had an IC chip
NO rules for lightning!

so much for "faradayan cage"...

[tuffr2]

Earlier I just wrote thanks for sharing...I meant to say Wow, thank you very much for sharing the name of this phenomenal event. I think everyone has had electronics of some kind fried by lightning. And some had lighning hit close. I pay attention more to articles about lighning. Like 300 raindeer killed by lightning about a month ago.

One of many things that I do not understand is houseboats and lighning. There are thousands of houseboats on lake and I never heard of them getting hit by lighning.

Always heard get off the water during a storm. I saw a few dozen houseboat trying to leave the dock before a storm started. So they were not worried about getting off the water.

Anyone get hit by lighning on a houseboat?



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