Rob-
The only real way to protect electronics is to disconnect them and store them in a metal box. The voltage surge induced in the wiring is what fries the equipment normally, and not much can prevent that.
There are basically two schools of thought on lightning grounding and bonding.
The first is to ground the mast and all large above deck metal objects, like stays, shrouds, stanchions, pulpits and pushpits. This, in theory, should create a region of safety. The grounding system should use a thick ribbon or foil of copper to connect the metal to a
grounding plate on the exterior of the keel.
The second school is to leave the boat completely ungrounded. The reasoning is this... grounded boats tend to get hit more often. So, by leaving the boat entirely ungrounded, you reduce the chance of getting hit. However, there is a downside to this... ungrounded boats generally suffer much more damage when they do get hit.
So either you ground and increase the risk of getting hit, and minimize the amount of damage a hit will do, or don't ground and minimize the chance of getting hit, but risk far more damage if it happens.
The static brushes are basically lightning phobe placebo equipment. For those to actually work, they would need a decent path to ground and a solid ground connection...
Power conditioners don't work, since the lightning power surges can occur in the wiring leading into the equipment, and it doesn't have to be power wiring... the mic cord on a
VHF set could fry the electronics if the lightning induced surge is high enough.
As for the Nitronic rod being blow out... not completely surprised given stainless steel's generally high resistance to electricity. It is roughly only 3% as conductive as copper... and as such tends to heat up quite a bit under the very high voltage/amperage of a lightning strike.