[Public-List] lightning protection & grounding plates

George Dinwiddie gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
Thu Mar 6 11:23:59 PST 2008


Dan Landrigan wrote:
>    Quick question for you more experienced sailors. What protection do
>    you take against lighting strikes?

Clean living.

A decade or more ago, I did a lot of research into the topic.  (I was 
also researching lightning protection for work, at the time.)  The 
biggest rub is that to get a good ground connection to the water, you 
need two square feet of clean copper.  Not only is this a large area, 
but it won't be clean for long.

As Gord says, people get lucky and unlucky both ways.  Given that 
there's not sure-fire solution, taking the easier route of doing nothing 
seemed prudent for me.

One thing you should /NOT/ do--is to ground your rig to the 
through-hulls.  In my research I came across an incident where this had 
been done, and a lightning strike blew out every through-hull.  This is 
an indication that halfway measures are likely to be worse than none at all.

Where are you located?  With the exception of southern Florida, 
lightning strikes are actually relatively uncommon in the United States.

  - George

-- 
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------




 1204831439.0


More information about the Public-List mailing list