I've now been in a lightning storm in a boat twice.
The first time we were hit twice. The engines hesitated, but kept running.
The second time was recently, I ended up surrounded by thunderheads off the coast of
Florida, I was scared, and put out grounding straps connected to the shrouds into the
water, but wasn't hit.
Not sure how it hit a
power boat twice, but somehow missed a 70 ft metal rod sticking into the air, but there it is.
I'm still not sure if the grounding straps are effective, as I haven't been hit yet to test, but they are heavy gauge copper braid crimped to a OO gauge lug, and screwed onto the chainplates with a 1/2"
bronze bolt.
My next install is one of those feather dusters on the
mast.
I made one from 2.5 ft of OO gauge
aluminum stranded wire crimped to an
aluminum terminal with an aluminum bracket to screw to the top of my aluminum mast so no galvanic
corrosion.
I'll post a thread on how well it works if I ever get hit.
(less than $100 in parts).