Lightning Protection : Sparking a Dialog !

[Paul Allinson]

Would like to gets folks' experiences on lightning protection.
Do you have a:
* Conducting System (CS) lightning rod on the mast connected to the water
* Dissipation System (DS) the bottle brush or similar type on masthead
* Integrated System (IS) using both technologies
Is yours a home built system or purchased - who supplied it?
Or do you just acccept the chance of a strike as part of the territory.
With all the miles under this group's collective keel I'll bet there are some good examples to share.
Paul

[Ian Clarke]

Hi Paul, we are in the group that has not done anything with regard to lightening protection. Keep your insurance paid up. It does happen, one of the ARC world boats lost all electronics due to a strike. Luckily they were at anchor at the time of the strike and could get everything shipped to them before continuing on. He did say how happy and impressed he was with backup and service he got from his insurance company. They never skimped on cost, or replacing anything that had potentially been damaged.
Regards Ian

[David Reeves]

After seeing so many boats with bottle brushes and major lightning damage AND a major electrolysis problem I decided to avoid any electrical connection with the water and have been very satisfied.  I replaced all thru hulls with marelon.  That was about eleven years and over 25 thousand miles ago.  Yes the 3/4" ones are kinda flimsy but are easily replaced even in the water.  I also later replaced the saildrives with shafts.  That was a huge project but certainly the best modification I've made.  I included plastic discs between the shaft coupling to further isolate the water from any current flow.  There is definitely not any electrolysis problem now.

Regarding lightning since the modifications...we've been in multiple major lightning storms with direct hits to the water very close and all around us.  We've even seen blue flames shooting between our salon support poles but have not had any damaged electronics except masthead yet.  In addition, once when hauled I was under the boat working on props during a lightning storm and got popped, probably not a direct hit, but it knocked me on the ground.  After sitting in the mud a minute I decided I was already wet and muddy and should just finish the job...and lightning never strikes the same place twice, right?  I had rubber soles too.  Well, don;t believe that because I got popped again but worse this time about ten minutes later.  I do hate lightning but don't talk to me about bottle brushes.

Dave

ZING  SF43 #12

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 7:22 PM, Ian Clarke <kiwii...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Paul, we are in the group that has not done anything with regard to lightening protection. Keep your insurance paid up. It does happen, one of the ARC world boats lost all electronics due to a strike. Luckily they were at anchor at the time of the strike and could get everything shipped to them before continuing on. He did say how happy and impressed he was with backup and service he got from his insurance company. They never skimped on cost, or replacing anything that had potentially been damaged.
Regards Ian

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[Paul Allinson]

Thanks Dave,

You bring up a great point on eliminating metal connections to the water which should directional minimize "side strikes" from the water - no to mention the electrolysis benefit.

Attached is a simple device consisting of a stout strap from the base of the mast, going through-deck to a dissipation point below deck -  no water contact. This is on a friends 44 cat in Maryland.

Paul

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