OK, so I've been hit twice so far. Once on my grounded Little Harbor 38 and once on my Grady White 23 motorboat which I grounded to beat the band because I'm paranoid. The sailboat got hit at Three Mile Inlet (Long Island) and the Grady got hit at Cape Lookout, NC. The Grady was nestled in among about 15 sailboats with much taller masts than my 20' outriggers. So, if I had no grounding might I have not been hit? I'd guess that would be likely. On the other hand, a few weeks before the Grady got hit an ungrounded sailboat got hit. The strike went down the shrouds to the chain plates, then blew holes out the bottom of the boat below / near the water
line. The boat sunk quickly. So after two strikes, while I hope the third is NOT the one that kills me, I'll still take my chances being grounded. At least I have an idea the of the path the lightning will take. In neither of our strikes did we experience any significant damage. I had disconnected all the electronics I could and lost only a small electronic module on the Grady engine and a Heart Pathmaker on the sailboat.