[mbianka]

As powerful thunderstorms rolled through Massachusetts and New England on Saturday, one man was recording as lightning struck a nearby sailboat in South Boston.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/lightning-hits-boat-in-boston-harbor-explosive-video-shows

 

[SeanM26]

And God said, "Eff that boat in particular."

 

[justified]

Has anyone heard what type of damage was done? My boat got hit once while at the dock( no one on board) and the only thing I ever found was blown out nav lights and a melted circuit board in the depth finder.

 

[CarbonSink]

The owner is on the FaceBook Bristol group.

He says every fuse was blown and electronics fried, but no other big damage.

No one was on board.

The through hulls were not bonded to the ground bus. Owner says this is why they weren't blown out (and sunk the boat), other comments say this is why it was hit.

It is a Bristol 29.9, finest boats ever made.

Ken

 

[Minnewaska]

How could thru hull bonding, or lack thereof, have anything to do with whether a boat is hit by lightening. What happens when one is hit by lightening, may be another point.

Just recently read an article that static dissipators don’t work. We have one. Witchcraft I guess. I wonder if this boat had one.

 

[CarbonSink]

Some posters felt that a bonded boat wouldn't build up a charge.

FWIW

 

[Minnesail]

Some posters felt that a bonded boat wouldn't build up a charge.

FWIW

Sounds like more witchcraft.

 

[midwesterner]

Some posters felt that a bonded boat wouldn't build up a charge.

FWIW

Sounds like more witchcraft.

My strategy is to always park between bigger boats with taller masts. 😅⚡

 

[MikeOReilly]

...It is a Bristol 29.9, finest boats ever made.

I talked to another Bristol 29 owner who had his boat sunk by lighting. Maybe the sailing gods hate Brisols :wink.

My view with lighting is that we’re dealing with such high voltages that we can do very little control its path. It’ll go where it wants to, and the route will largely be based on an essentially random path that is hard to control or foresee.

 

[colemj]

The owner is on the FaceBook Bristol group.

He says every fuse was blown and electronics fried, but no other big damage.

No one was on board.

The through hulls were not bonded to the ground bus. Owner says this is why they weren't blown out (and sunk the boat), other comments say this is why it was hit.

It is a Bristol 29.9, finest boats ever made.

Ken

That's amazing, because it looked like there was a big fireball inside the boat and on deck. I had been expecting to hear that there was a fire onboard from the way the video looked.

Bonding thruhulls is generally done for corrosion reasons - not for lightning. Lightning bonding should be a separate system.

Anyone saying that not having the thruhulls bonded is the reason for the strike are wrong - and a second or two of thinking would show why.

Mark

 

[Hudsonian]

The RC cancelled the race because of lightning. While we were sailing in, a moored Nonesuch 40 yards in front of us was struck be lightning and the radar dome went up in a puff of smoke. One wag observed, "Oh, look they elected a pope."

 

[chef2sail]

My strategy is to always park between bigger boats with taller masts. 😅⚡

You park your boat

We dock or anchor ours.7

 

[RegisteredUser]

Is it..take a pee, whizz, take a leak...or more proper, urinate?
It matters..not..not one drop

 

[chef2sail]

My strategy is to always park between bigger boats with taller masts. 😅⚡

We were surrounded by 1600 masts in Annapolis Back Creek and that didn’t help

 

[OldMan-theSea]

Is it..take a pee, whizz, take a leak...or more proper, urinate?
It matters..not..not one drop

or micturate

 

[capta]

At sea on my boats I have started the engine when in extremely heavy lightning storms and it seems to have protected me except for one time, but it went up from the boat, not down into it, so there was no damage to anything. On one 80 foot motor sailor a strike off the Fla/Ga border took out all the electronics, but they all came back slowly over the next few days. We were headed for the Great Lakes so we just kept going as I figured that farther north would be the best place to replace any electronics anyway. We did just fine w/o.