Lightning, and what to do about it

[Wallaby]

Once hit, twice shy; however, after a lot of research, beyond bonding to provide a path from mast to water there is not much you can do about it. As for a 25-mile awareness/warning radius, that's like knowing there are other cars on the freeway 25 miles away. Not much help.

Insure your boat.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Pegu Club

If there was actual lightning strike protection it would be well known and used by everyone who could afford it. As it stands presently there is no such protection. One can pretend to mitigate such an event, but if Mother Nature wants to punch your ticket there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

Fair winds,

Boat US has published their lightening strike loss statistics in the past. The bottom line was that so called "lightening protection/prevention" systems had no measurable effect...except at "lighten-ing" the buyer's wallet.

[onestepcsy37]

i have posted before on our lightning experience.

short story.

most or all of your electronics have a fuse on the positive wire. put a fuse on the negative wire as well.

the only piece of electronics that survived was our navtex. it came with a negative wire fuse, which was blown. i replaced the fuse and it started right up.

none of the positive wire fuses were blown on any of our electronics.

[Wallaby]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

i have posted before on our lightning experience.

short story.

most or all of your electronics have a fuse on the positive wire. put a fuse on the negative wire as well.

the only piece of electronics that survived was our navtex. it came with a negative wire fuse, which was blown. i replaced the fuse and it started right up.

none of the positive wire fuses were blown on any of our electronics.

Do you have any technical citations to back up this approach? As I understand it, EM radiation blows electronics unless they are in a Faraday cage/shield.


Worth reading: https://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/mag...protection.asp

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by Pegu Club

If there was actual lightning strike protection it would be well known and used by everyone who could afford it. As it stands presently there is no such protection. One can pretend to mitigate such an event, but if Mother Nature wants to punch your ticket there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

Fair winds,

Woe is me. All is lost. It's up to fate. Don't look both ways before crossing the street because: "when it's my time to go, it's my time."

Fatalistic rubbish. You'd think no one here has heard of Benjamin Franklin.

I worked as a broadcast engineer, and we'd take direct hits on our towers hundreds of times a year with no damage. The coax from that tower lead into a building full of electronics more delicate than anything on your boat.

What's the difference between a broadcast tower and a sailboat mast? There's water under a boat.

Bonding. Grounding (a relative term - seawater is more conductive than the dirt under the broadcast tower). Surge protection.

Do those three things right, and you shouldn't have a problem. Or, you can just blame the capricious lightning gods for smiting your boat with fire from the sky. Everyone in the 17th century would agree with you.

[Wallaby]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

Bonding. Grounding (a relative term - seawater is more conductive than the dirt under the broadcast tower). Surge protection.

Do those three things right, and you shouldn't have a problem.

Bonding and Grounding are crucial. With regard to surge protection: 12v 10kA on the primary electronics?



Do you have better suggestions for surge protection? I think that would be helpful.

[onestepcsy37]

Q.
Do you have any technical citations to back up this approach? As I understand it, EM radiation blows electronics unless they are in a Faraday cage/shield.


A.
i have not one shred of scientific evidence. it was not even my 'approach'. it just so happened that furuno fused both wires when they built their navtex. i am merely relating my one and only experience with lightning. but wait. theres more....

some, but not all, of our interior bulbs were burned out. our p&s nav lights were also burned out, but not the stern light.

anything i had connected directly to the battery bank (six 6v golf carts) was undamaged. they were the cpt autopilot, the adler barbour fridge, the 600w inverter, and the solar panel. all except the solar panel were fused only on the positive wire.

in the words of pee wee herman -

what does all this mean? I DONT KNOW!!!!

[Clivevon]

Re: Lightening, and what to do about it:

Really, I dunno. My wife's been telling me to lighten up for years, but its not easy....

[Richv]

Originally Posted by fxarcher

I wanted to call everyone's attention to a blogcast on "On the Wind Sailing", a blog produced by 59 North I listened to on Stitcher.
The episode on April 28, 2020, featuring Jeff Thayer.
Jeff is a scientist who did research on lightning for the space program.

I found it to be the most informative info I ever heard on a subject that is much discussed and little understood.

Lightening: Removing excess weight.
Lightning: An atmospheric discharge of high energy electricity.

[Richv]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Boat US has published their lightening strike loss statistics in the past. The bottom line was that so called "lightening protection/prevention" systems had no measurable effect...except at "lighten-ing" the buyer's wallet.

About 40 years ago, the pole power transformer near my parents' house was hit by lightning. It caused a lot of damage in the neighborhood, including blowing up a clock in my hand. Since I was interested in electronics and electricity, I installed Industrial MOV's (Metal Oxide Varisters) at the main panel. A few months later, the same thing happened; the rest of the neighborhood had major damage, and my parent's place was spared. That said, a solid Earth ground is essential for such protection, and that's kind of hard to do on a boat. Also, the best human protection systems will protect against secondary effects, but nothing will protect against a direct strike, since the energy in an average lightning strike is equivalent to a small bomb.

[Talos]

With the Talos Lightning Detector .. it alerts you to incoming storm fronts with lightning. Turns Green when lightning is detected 25 miles away .. then Blue when with in 15 miles (to alert you the storm is heading your way) and then flashes Red when it is within 6 miles along with an audible beep with each strike detected. The unit remains flashing the range color for 15 mins after the last strike. www.shoptalos.com

[dickfred]

Not surprisingly, Boat US has an excellent article on this by Charles Fort entitled "How Likely is Your Boat to be Struck by Lightning" (and what to do about it-nothing) First two paragraphs:
"According to reports from our BoatUS Marine Insurance claim files, the odds of your boat being struck by lightning in any year are about one in 1,000. Some states, such as Idaho, have no lightning claims (no surprise). But for those of you with boats in Florida, nobody has to tell you that the odds there are greater. Much greater.
Thirty-three percent of all lightning claims are from the Sunshine State, and the strike rate there is 3.3 boats per 1,000. Not surprisingly, the majority of strikes are on sailboats (four per 1,000), but powerboats get struck also (five per 10,000). Trawlers have the highest rate for powerboats (two per 1,000), and lightning has struck houseboats, bass boats, and even PWCs. Lightning-strike repairs tend to be expensive and time-consuming, but there are things you can do to lessen the damage after a strike."
Years ago, I was part of a crew that met a Catalina 36' in the North Channel who were to return the boat to Detroit. The boat had been struck by lightning and had wiped out all of the electronics. Lack of availability of parts and time constraints, meant only the compass was replaced. We sailed her to Tobermory and from there to Port Huron and then on to Detroit. When the boat was finally pulled the hull had numerous cracks similar to what you would see in a picture puzzle. I think we were naïve to take her in that condition, but I had no idea of how compromised the hull appeared to be.

[Dougtiff]

I sailed in Indonesia for many year's, Indo has one of the highest incidents of lighting on the planet, on advice from another sailer, i installed chain shackled to my upper's, long enough to be submerged in the water when needed, never got a hit, not saying they helped, but did feel safer, also has a brush on the top of the mast.

[Hoodsail]

My strategy is to anchor close to bigger sailboats with taller masts.. figure that they can afford to replace their electronics, not me. Plus I am a safe refuge if their boat is struck and all thru hulls blow and down she goes!

[Pegu Club]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Boat US has published their lightening strike loss statistics in the past. The bottom line was that so called "lightening protection/prevention" systems had no measurable effect...except at "lighten-ing" the buyer's wallet.

Exactly, bonded or not bonded, brushy thingy on the mast top or not, etc etc, means nothing to any lightning scenario one may find themselves in. Not all that long ago we found ourselves in one hell of a lightning storm off the Maryland coast, at night of course..., lightning was sky to water all around us, there was no conceivable reason we were not hit, Forty minutes of pure psychological trauma, accompanied by the obligatory forty plus mph winds, call it what you like, but it’s all luck of the draw. The gods were smiling upon us that night,

Fair winds,