Lightning Strikes

[cameron82]

I'm Very curious to know if anyone has ever been struck and how bad or how good it turned out ?Did you have it earthed out ? Also just before the strike you felt more pressure ? or any other abnormally just before the strike?

Thanks in advance Cameron

[Vasco]

Do a search. Lots of threads on this. Some of us have had direct hits more than once.

[Me-and-Boo]

Not a direct hit, just close enough to destroy all the wiring in the mast and to the instruments.

[travellerw]

Took a direct strike back in June.. Destroyed all the electronics, lights and anything else plugged into a wire (laptops, tablets, ect). Anything unplugged survived. It also led to the destruction of one of our saildrives. The lightening went along the shift cable and melted it causing it to not shift properly. It popped in and out of gear under load and destroyed the clutch! The alternators worked for about 5-10 hours before both failed. One failed catastrophically and actually started smoking.

There was absolutely no warning or signals (except for the lighting and thunder going on for a 1/2 hour).

We had no insurance for lighting. Total cost to repair the damage was around $18,000 with my wife and I doing all the work, except the saildrive. Was a very bad day for us. On the upside, not having to deal with insurance meant we were back underway 3 days after all the replacement gear arrived.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Lightning on CF:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=011403...ing&gsc.page=1

[barnakiel]

Yes, there was clearly something in the air. Something mystic. A kind of suspense. And then the God told me quietly: "David, save the balls!". And WHOPS the bolt hit our neighbours' boat!

So, it helps that God is an old man with -14 diopter, diabetes (just look at that belly!), and (obviously) poor memory for names.

Everything on my neighbours' boat got fried, including my neighbours and their cat. Which is just as good as they had an AirX and the cat used to jump over to our boat and piss everywhere.

Finally, some justice.

;-)
b.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yes, there was clearly something in the air. Something mystic. A kind of suspense. And then the God told me quietly: "David, save the balls!". And WHOPS the bolt hit our neighbours' boat!

So, it helps that God is an old man with -14 diopter, diabetes (just look at that belly!), and (obviously) poor memory for names.

Everything on my neighbours' boat got fried, including my neighbours and their cat. Which is just as good as they had an AirX and the cat used to jump over to our boat and piss everywhere.

Finally, some justice.

;-)
b.

ohmy this is guinness stuff---- first ever recorded zap of a cat by lightning--i bet you celebrated hard!!! whoooot...... i would not use his skin as my anti zap cat hat...

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Vasco

Do a search. Lots of threads on this. Some of us have had direct hits more than once.

And, that is what is interesting to me. Our boat is 26 years old, with a 62 foot aluminum mast and we live and boat in the one of the most lighting prone areas of the country, and we have never been hit once. On the other hand, there are boats in our marina, a couple of hundred yards from us, much newer than our boat, with shorter masts than ours, who have been hit numerous times.

There is obviously some missed science going on here, and a path to less strikes must exist, but darned if I can figure out what it is, after years of looking at boats that never get hit and at boats that get hit a lot.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Zzzzzzzzzap! KaBOOOOM!

[tkeithlu]

Please don't run another thread on this one. We have them about every three months, and explaining static versus conductive charges and conductive routing in boats is getting old.

[sailjumanji]

Friend of mine had boat at his backyard dock. Hooked up to shore power. Lightening strike damaged his boat as well as knocked out his home electronics.

[toddedger]

Wow what a shot. Looks like that bolt provided enough juice to powere up the running lights

[a64pilot]

I was eating in Panacea on day right beside the local baseball field.
It like all others was surrounded by light poles and a chain link fence with a high backstop, yet the lightning struck the ground right beside the pitchers mound?

[Frankly]

On two different occasions in motor boating years past (once with aluminum outriggers, and once with a radio antenna) I experienced corona discharge from the tip of the pole. Sounds like bacon frying. Often this is a prelude to your number is up, but in both cases no strike followed.

The only absolute in the business of lightning is there will be a loud noise during a close by strike. All else is a game of probabilities, luck, geometry (principally relative altitude), and when was the last time you attended a church service.

[Eggbah]

Has a boat been struck by lightning while I was on it? Nope.

Have I been struck? Yes. You will not feel any pressure at first. It will feel like you stuck your finger in an outlet for a bit - not a regular household one, an appliance one. The ringing in the ears and the pressure in your head afterwards are not exactly pleasant. The zingers afterwards is what really gets you. The best way I can describe it is like having knives shoot out of your body on the side the current entered. The current entered my body through my right hand (FYI - do not open a metal storm door during a thunderstorm!) and that night it felt like my right foot was going to fly off. Very painful!

If you're struck, you may forget who you are, where you're at, or you may lose consciousness. I didn't lose consciousness, but I barely remember the first couple days after the strike and everything was off. I couldn't write or type. I would forget how to do basic things. I was somewhat back to 80% in a few months. Still not 100% and the ringing can stir up one heck of a migraine.

The sharp shooting headaches are downright brutal and the cold rushes on the right side of my skull scare the mess out of me. All tests came back normal though. Lightning can do a number on you if it doesn't kill you. Stay safe out there!!