Lightning strike in my marina

[teshannon]

Saturday morning we had a good thunderstorm blow through my marina in Longport NJ. One particular crack was obviously close by. When it cleared I learned that a sailboat had been hit. The boat is a great looking Najad 4000 owned by a nice couple from Denmark. They bought the boat in the Fall and were doing some coastal sailing before heading with her to Denmark. They and their 2 kids were just fine but the electronics are mostly fried. Chartplotter, GPS, VHF, autopilot, battery monitor, wind instruments, 110 to 220 converter, all gone. Some damage at the top of the mast. We took the boat and had it hauled on Monday and no damage to thru hulls luckily. They have a grounding system but the plate was still it's original color. I'm told it should have turned pink.
Some of the failures were a bit odd. Radar appears to be fine. Windlass works fine from the cockpit remote but not from bow remote. Some lighting blown, some just fine.
Anyway, fortunately we've got a great bunch of folks at the marina and they're getting all the help they need. They have insurance and Martec is close by. I suspect they'll be around for a bit.

[T37Chef]

Glad to hear all are okay, that's a real bummer if just a delay.

Now I know this sounds demented, but when out last during a violent T storm a very small part of my brain (not a lot there to begin with) was hoping a lightning strike would hit and fry my old electronics so Boat US could buy me new ones.

[teshannon]

T37,
I know what you mean. In their case it looked like everything they lost was top of the line. The other real sad part of their story is that they left Cape May Friday morning heading for Long Island but about 10 miles out from Longport they were attacked by swarms of NJ's famous black flies and pulled in just to escape them. If it wasn't for the flies they would not have been there. I was out Friday also and there must have been hundreds on my boat at one time. My feet were literally bloody by the time I got in. I love New Jersey!

[Trilogy77]

Wow! First they were attacked by a swarm of black flies and then struck by lightning....... I think someone might be trying to tell them something !!!!

[chuck5499]

WOOOO - another boat and i left cape may for sandy hook at 1400 on friday and did an overnight sail - we got hit by the storms just before we rounded the markers into sandy hook - we talked about staying but decided to move on - we did hear all the yell for help on the radio - glad we left -
as i have already been hit by lightening once in the bahamas and had to get back to miami to get the repairs done - not fun as i still run across issues that are the result of the strike - and like them some things worked and other things were totally fried - i feel for them
chuck and svsoulmates
ki4sry
on the hook in city island, ny

[RickQuann]

Thankfully no one was hurt. Thats odd though how the lightening strike affected some systems and not others.

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by teshannon

Saturday morning we had a good thunderstorm blow through my marina in Longport NJ. One particular crack was obviously close by. When it cleared I learned that a sailboat had been hit. The boat is a great looking Najad 4000 owned by a nice couple from Denmark. They bought the boat in the Fall and were doing some coastal sailing before heading with her to Denmark. They and their 2 kids were just fine but the electronics are mostly fried. Chartplotter, GPS, VHF, autopilot, battery monitor, wind instruments, 110 to 220 converter, all gone. Some damage at the top of the mast. We took the boat and had it hauled on Monday and no damage to thru hulls luckily. They have a grounding system but the plate was still it's original color. I'm told it should have turned pink.
Some of the failures were a bit odd. Radar appears to be fine. Windlass works fine from the cockpit remote but not from bow remote. Some lighting blown, some just fine.
Anyway, fortunately we've got a great bunch of folks at the marina and they're getting all the help they need. They have insurance and Martec is close by. I suspect they'll be around for a bit.

Hey Tom,

Just FYI - Lightning does really strange things to electronics. Our charplotter worked fine afterwards, then would suddenly go squirelly, then start working fine. Point being, see if they can get it all replaced if they are going to do anything serious offshore.

- B

[teshannon]

Thanks CD, good insight. I will see them on Thursday night and suggest that. They do plan to sail the boat from New England to the Bahamas and then do a crossing to the Azores via Bermuda, and on to Denmark so it would probably be a good idea.

[Freesail99]

When I lived in North West Jersey, my house took so many lighting hits ( even had 31 lighting rods on the house) that the insurance company excluded lighting from my home owner policy. The house was high up on a hill at one of the highest points in NJ. My kids still get a little freaked, when they hear thunder, lol

[T37Chef]

Originally Posted by Freesail99

When I lived in North West Jersey, my house took so many lighting hits

This explains everything