Lightening Strike (Indirect) - Raymarine i70 No Wind

[Emerald Sea]

Hit by a good squall while at bay with a hard lightning strike quite close to the boat. We've lost our wind sensor ability from the Raymarine i70's; we have three of these instruments on board, each not recording wind speed, direction. Went up the mast, all is physically intact, connections appear fine.

Other system work ie GPS, heading, mast light, VHF, electrics.

Other than cable connections where should I be focusing the troubleshooting.

Thanks, Steve

[travellerw]

If all the physical connections and wires are intact, then it was most likely killed by the EMF pulse. Based on your picture and description, my educated guess is only the masthead instrument was damaged. This makes sense as they have magnets and coils that could be susceptible to an EMF pulse. However, this is just my hypothesis.

I would start by asking in the Raymarine forum if there is a testing procedure for that device. I suspect they can be tested using a multimeter on the wires (in the event of an analog sensor). If its a NMEA 2000 (or Seatalk NG), then I'm not sure it could be tested other than replacing it.

As to your other electronics. If they are working, great, but only time will tell. Electronics subjected to strong EMF pulses usually have a shortened life span.

[chuckr]

We had similar on our raymarine st instruments when an idiot moved out from under a canopy to open waters in the icw in SC during a thunderstorm - he lost everything and we got a energy surge and took out our wind thingy at the top of the mast - got it replaced in Charleston SC - I think those things are a bit fragile and we carry a spare on board