[Public-List] Lightning Ground

[Bill Boyle]

Thanks for all the input.  I'll try and stay out from under a strike!   I'll even sit on James...  If I can find that version around my house!



________________________________
From: Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net>
To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> 
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Public-List] Lightning Ground


I agree - the grounding has to be done carefully for the reason shown below.

Anecdotal stories about strikes vary wildly with regard to what happens...
I once was crewing in an ungrounded J24 and saw lightning strike the water.
Why it didn't hit us, I have no idea.

A few years ago a pair of boats were rafted up near here on Georgian Bay;
one was a wooden yacht (an Ostkust 24) obsessively grounded, the other an
ungrounded Northern 24.  The Northern was struck on it's masthead, and there
was apparently a side flash over to the wooden boat.  Both boats had scorch
marks on them, the Northern particularly on the side toward the wooden boat.
Later, the wooden boat's owner noticed that all the plugs had been blown off
the screw fastenings in his hull around the waterline...and his rudder
dissolved into splinters later that summer.

Both boats were occupied and their owners heard the bang, but both assumed
the lightening had struck elsewhere.

Another friend, who owned a Douglas 32 on a mooring in front of his home,
saw her struck but found no damage but odd wiring issues, a blown stereo,
and a beer bottle (which he's kept) that was full and unopened before the
strike; is still unopened, but now only half full.

Another yacht, a Dufour 31, was motoring back in the '80's in the Erie Canal
system with her mast laid on trestles on deck.  After a real cracker of a
thunderstorm, a last bolt of lightening struck the helmsman who was standing
in the cockpit, flashed through him to the engine beneath the cockpit and
blew out the through hulls. His wife had to cope with the fact that he was
killed, the diesel engine was set on fire, and the boat was sinking.  The
lightening ignored the grounding system

I don't like lightning....

G


On 26/07/13 12:10 PM, "David Gilbert" <bigkanu at rogers.com> wrote:

> More on lightening. I have heard of people bolting a copper plate to
> the keel and running a heavy wire to it overboard from the mast; but
> many feel all this would do is blow a huge hole in the keel so I'm
> back to reliance on the CN Tower and plain good luck.
> David
> On 26-Jul-13, at 11:42 AM, Bill Boyle wrote:
> 
>> Anyone know if the mast is grounded to the keel?  If so, how?  If
>> not, does anyone have thoughts on how to do that?
>> 
>> Bill Boyle
>> 129
>> 
>> 
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