[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

Hi, sailors,

I haven't been very active on Sailnet for the last couple of years since we're lubbers now. I don't know how many of you still remember me. But I still have my Frugal Mariner website, and I have a Frugal Mariner Facebook page, if any of you are at all interested.

But that's not what I came here to talk about.

I've just recently published my first book (How to Rob a Bank - a Love Story) and I'm working on a sequel to it.

One of the early scenes has the hero and heroine on a cruising sailboat which gets hit with lightning. I've seen many boats which had been struck with lightning and I've been within 100 feet of one as it got hit. But I've never been on one as it got hit.

So I need some good descriptions. Like how freaking loud is it? Do you see the sparks flying as it passes through? Does your hair stand on end from the static discharge? How bright is it inside the boat when it hits?

Any good descriptions would be immensely helpful.

As always, Thanks for any information you can give me.

It will be fun to hear from you folks again.

 

[justified]

Larry
Good to see that you are sill keeping tabs on us here, also I enjoy your web site, lots of good info.

My boat did get hit one time - Newport 28- while sitting at the dock. Luckily I was not on board. The only damage we had was lost all the nav lights and fried the depth finder and VHF.

What I would like to tell you about was - one wknd coming back across LIS from a lovely couple of days on Shelter Island Ny, we were dodging t storms the whole way home back to Indian Town harbor Old Saybrook. Well I was restricted at the time by a sandbar outside the harbor entrance so I needed to wait until the tide was rising and above half tide to get in. So my timing was off by about 2hrs. So I dropped the hook and waited. Lighting was everywhere around us, The wife was sitting out in the cockpit reading when she calls me to the companionway and asks "whats that buzzing sound?" , my mind went OH CRAP. I tried not to show any concern since we had our 10yr old daughter with us. I calmly said "oh it's just static charge in the rigging from all the lighting nothing to worry about just don't touch anything metal it will dissipate soon" I hoped! It was buzzing like I was standing under high tension electric lines. Inside i was a wreck thought my boat was gonna explode and i was only 200yds from my dock and safety. Well sure enough it eventually went away and the tide rose enough to get back in - It was a really long 2hrs.

Good luck with your book

Peter

 

[travlin-easy]

Larry, I've come very close to being hit, but not on the boat. About 30 years ago, during the passage of a strong, frontal system, while getting out of my car to walk in the front door of my home, I felt my hair begin to stand up, just like it would if you rubbed a balloon on your hair. It was a weird feeling, the sky was ink black and suddenly, a loud crack and deafening boom shattered the air. The concussion knocked me to the ground and the transformer on the electric pole 40 feet over my head exploded into a million pieces. The light was similar to that of a flash bulb going off directly in front of your eyes. My wife was at the door screaming "are you OK?" I waved, tried to stand, but had some difficulty at first, then entered the house. 10 seconds later, another bolt of lightning hit the top of the pole again, our lights were already out from the first hit, and the house next door had a 4-foot hole through the garage roof. Fortunately, it did not catch on fire.

Over the years I've read so many "Old wives tales" about how sailboats with grounded masts are protected from lightning strikes being the most prominent fable. Nothing, absolutely nothing, protects boats from lightning strikes, at least not in my part of the world. At least a half-dozen in the marina where I keep my boat have been hit in the past two years. Three had grounded masts.

One of our forum members, Michael Maxx (ferrettchaser) had his boat struck at Hilton Head, SC last year. All his electronics were trashed, Radar, VHF, SSB, Sonar, AM/FM, TV, Inverter, etc... I don't recall if he was aboard when it happened. though. Maybe he will chime in and shed some light on this.

All the best,

Gary

 

[ccriders]

Larry, I searched but did not find a post here a couple of years ago where a Great Lakes sailor described a lightning event. As I recall it was more eerie that flash excitement.
A year ago we had just settled down in our charter in Tortola. Thunder storms were around, but I didn't think much about it as there were highlands around us, along with taller masts. And then FLASH BANG and we all jumped for cover. I think every lightning event has its own characteristics with flash and bang being fundamental. So let your imagination tell the story. Who could argue?
John
Oh, yeah, the smell of ozone permeates the air.

 

[Faster]

The Copelands were struck off the coast of Africa on their circumnav.. I'd expect it's well described in their book(s) (Andy and Liz Copeland)

LIZA & ANDY COPELAND: World travellers, Cruising Authors and Speakers

You may be familiar already?

 

[TQA]

Steel 38 ft ketch at anchor on chain rode in Beaufort NC.

Strike was on the mast head and vaporized the TRI VHF aerial and little upside down broom anti lightening device. Little metal balls were all over the deck and a couple had burnt through my vinyl dodger.

I was sitting down below still disconnecting electronics when it went fuzzy blue inside the cabin for about a second then it hit. I was deafened by the noise and it took two or three days to get my hearing back. About 50% of my electronics were toast but not the VHF which survived despite still having the aerial and power leads attached.

The hull was so strongly magnetized that all compasses were useless just pointing to the same corner of the cockpit.

 

[eherlihy]

We weren't hit but...

This was back when I was taking sailing lessons out of Boston Harbor. It was August, and we were practicing coastal navigation and made a run up to Rockport, MA, and then returning to Boston. The plan was that we would have lunch on the Rockmore a floating restaurant, and be back at the dock by 6:00 pm.

As we approached Deer Island, I noticed a line of thunderheads (cumulonimbus clouds) all across the southern horizon, and pointed this out to the crew. All of us readied our rain gear. Once we entered the outer harbor, the rain hit, and it poured HARD. The instructor had us drop the sails, and start the motor. The instructor then had us put on our lifejackets as the rain came down harder, and we ran at WOT trying to get back to the mooring ASAP. Then the lightning started; flash, and 3-4 seconds later, BOOM! Flash, then 2 seconds later BOOM! At this point the instructor had us all go below, as he lashed the tiller, and we all watched the show out the ports. At this point we were right between Deer Island and Logan Airport, Bolt, and a second later BOOM! Then BOLT and BOOM simultaneously! We had about 4 hits where the delay between the bolt, which we could see hitting the ground at Logan Airport, and the BOOM was not perceptible. All that I can say is it was VERY loud.

As the front began to pass, we looked out the cabin windows and noticed that one of the harbor dinner cruise boats was now bearing down on us, as we continued to motor in a circle... There was still a bunch of lightning, but there was a 2-3 second delay between the flash and the boom. He and I went on deck and unlashed the tiller. We straightened out the course, and passed the dinner cruise boat port to port. As we did so, the rain stopped, and he called the crew back on deck. We returned to the dock at about midnight.

 

[ccriders]

You can see from this ^^^ post that it is really hard to describe the feeling one has when the storm goes FLASHBOOM all at once. You cannot help but cringe in fear. Good writing assignment.
John

 

[sailak]

I've been in a house hit by lightning. Hard to describe well…

Big blue flash of fire behind the TV set coincided with blinding flash outside and thunder like you've never experienced….it's like being inside the BOOM.

 

[dylanwinter1]

dunno if this helps the creative juices at all

but here is a beaut of a storm filmed from the cabin of an 18 footer at anchor in eastern England

 

[Ajax_MD]

Steel 38 ft ketch at anchor on chain rode in Beaufort NC.

Strike was on the mast head and vaporized the TRI VHF aerial and little upside down broom anti lightening device. Little metal balls were all over the deck and a couple had burnt through my vinyl dodger.

I was sitting down below still disconnecting electronics when it went fuzzy blue inside the cabin for about a second then it hit. I was deafened by the noise and it took two or three days to get my hearing back. About 50% of my electronics were toast but not the VHF which survived despite still having the aerial and power leads attached.

The hull was so strongly magnetized that all compasses were useless just pointing to the same corner of the cockpit.

I've seen those anti-lightning dissipation devices. Do you feel that it did anything useful at all?

 

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

I want to thank each and every one of you for your input and descriptions. I always get good response from Sailnet. Great group of people!

@Bubblehead: I believe that the lightning dissipation devices are useless. And I've done my research. Read my page on Lightning here:
Protecting your boat from lightning.

CAUTION: BLATANT SELF-PROMOTION AHEAD:
And if you want to read an excerpt from my recently published book, go here:

How to Rob a Bank - a Love Story - Kindle edition by Elliot MacDonald. Romance Kindle eBooks @ [email protected]@[email protected]@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/[email protected]@[email protected]@618XbPXJS0L

And if you want to buy a copy so you can read the whole thing you would make an old sailor positively giddy.

Thanks again everybody!

 

[TQA]

I've seen those anti-lightning dissipation devices. Do you feel that it did anything useful at all?

Sometime ago I saw an analysis of lighting strikes by a major insurer [ Boat US ?? } that showed the little brooms made no difference.

Also I was not the tallest mast around by any means. So I guess it is just Kismet.

 

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

A friend of mine owned a wooden boat with a wooden mast. He had one of those static dissipation devices and a massive wire running down the mast to the keel. He received a lightning strike while in his slip with aluminum masted boats on each side of him. The boats near him were taller.

I copied the following from my Frugal Mariner website:
Forespar Lightning Master™(Static Dissipater): We're probably going to get into trouble here. The advertising claims all kinds of things. For three years in a row, I went to the Lightning Master™(Static Dissipater) booth at the Annapolis Boat Show. Originally, they offered to cover up to a certain amount of your insurance deductible (I don't remember how much, exactly, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000. Then the next year, three thousand, then, eventually, the offer disappeared entirely.

Every year, I asked the booth attendant what studies they used to support their claim that there was less of a chance of your boat getting hit. I was told that there were no studies, they just knew.

 

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

Take a look at this one too - the famous 'Cone of Protection' - which we have heard about for so many years - totally false.

Cone of Protection Myth - National Lightning Safety Institute

 

[Omatako]

Being around lightening does not mean your going to get hit.

We were in the Pungwe River in Beira (Mozambique) when a storm hit us - we were not anchored and were in confined space so couldn't go below. We had lighting striking all around us - even on the water near the boat but we never got hit.

Lightening was that close that we could feel the static electricity building on the hair on our arms and then it would strike the water that close that the spray hit us standing in the cockpit. The bang was possibly the loudest thing I have ever experienced.

We stood in the middle of the cockpit trying not to touch anything metal (as if that would help) until the storm was over. The boat never got touched and we lost no electrical equipment.

 

[mbianka]

I had a similar experience ran into a line of thunderstorms around Stepping Stones light in Long Island Sound. The storms arrived several hours earlier than Mr. NOAA predicted. Had lightning bolts hitting the water around the boat. Just though it was a matter of time before my boat got hit. But, it never happened.

Another time while heading east from New York we were following another sail bolt. We ducked into Oyster Bay our planned destination just as a line of thunderstorms caught up with us. I watched the other sailboat (which was all alone in the are) continue east. All of a sudden the sky was lit by a lightning bolt. It looked like it was heading toward mast of the other bolt but, then did a 60 degree turn and hit the water about 200 feet in front of the other sailboat. Very dramatic and strange to see.

I always know when the atmosphere is getting charged. The solar panel light on my Morningstar Solar controller starts to glow green in the night. Not sure how much energy gets transferred to the batteries. But, it's the only good thing I can see from the situation.

Being around lightening does not mean your going to get hit.

We were in the Pungwe River in Beira (Mozambique) when a storm hit us - we were not anchored and were in confined space so couldn't go below. We had lighting striking all around us - even on the water near the boat but we never got hit.

Lightening was that close that we could feel the static electricity building on the hair on our arms and then it would strike the water that close that the spray hit us standing in the cockpit. The bang was possibly the loudest thing I have ever experienced.

We stood in the middle of the cockpit trying not to touch anything metal (as if that would help) until the storm was over. The boat never got touched and we lost no electrical equipment.