I know a guy who has a length of stainless steel chain stored on deck and connected to the shrouds on each side of the boat. He dumps the chain in the water when he thinks it appropriate. His boat was hit by lightning in the past, but not since he got the chains, so he does not really know how good it works.
My big fear would be having the lightning blow out through the transducers and or thru hulls, which has been know to happen. Probably nothing will save the electronics, except maybe a portable radio stored in the oven, but the extra conductors might carry away enough energy to prevent a boat-sinking hole in the hull. At least that is the theory. There are a lot of sailboats that have been hit by lightning which failed to sink. That nothing reliable in terms of protection knowledge has come out of all of these close calls only goes to show how much luck is involved. Last week a soft ball player in Nova Scotia was hit and survived. As she reached out to open the door on a storage shed, the shed was struck by lightning. The current went up her arm and out her foot, with only minor burns to the surface of her skin, but her clothing was "blown to bits". After a night's observation in hospital, she reported still feeling weak from having all her muscles contracted, but otherwise ok. Steve Thomas C&C27 MKIII Port Stanley, ON ----- Original Message ----- From: Ryan Doyle via CnC-List To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Ryan Doyle Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 12:16 Subject: Re: Stus-List Grounding a mast - 30mki Thanks to Joe and everyone else who replied. After reading a few articles like this one - http://www.practical-sailor.com/blog/-11222-1.html, it sounds like there is little consensus on lightning protection for sailboats. I'd be curious to know what sort of lightning protection, if any, comes standard on new boats from the well-regarded manufacturers of heavy displacement cruisers like Hallberg Rassy etc. I just searched the manual for a new HR boat and there's no mention of lightning or lightning protection at all. Someone raised the point on one forum that inviting this massive amount of energy into your boat is a bad idea (IE a cable going from the mast to a keel bolt). Not sure whether this is a well-founded concern or not, but I'm leaning towards Joe's idea of clipping some jumpstart cables to the shrouds and hanging them overboard next time I'm caught out in a storm.
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