lightning protection
 

hey i got an odd question here. I am just about ready to put my ScarabIII back in the water and i keep that one wet all season, the way i use it i spend two/three days at a time on it often transient on this end of lake Erie. At any rate i have seen my share of foul weather creep out of nowhere and on a rare ocasion have been caught out in some potentially threatening situations. I was thinking about rigging some type of ground lead off the bow rails and running it to some type of contact point on the transom somewhere, trim tab or something similar to the way sailboats are protected. Now i know this is certainly overkill and will most likely never be needed but like i said i have been caught out in the chit. Many of these storms that run across us are pretty energetic but go over quickly in a fast moving front. My thoughts are if i had to i could toss a sea anchor and ride it out in the cabin. Anybody have any thoughts or experiance with lightning and proper protectoin?


Also feel free to tell me if this is just over thinking the situation and its just not necessary or would be inaffective. :D

dude, you just posted this thread and a thunderstorm started here about 5 minutes ago... weird.......

was doing some spring cleaning and had a storm go over a few hours ago an it got me thinking. Storm was running straight offshore and the waves were crashing onshore pretty good though. Lots of lightning, snapped a few pics inbetween fronts. These are very cool at night, I'll go out on the deck and watch the strikes travel out. Sometimes when they hit you'd swear the water glows for a few extra seconds (which is what got me thinkin about this thread :D).




surfs up huh? :drink:

A common ground strap with tin plated copper wire to bow rails
engines and tabs and outdrives. This strap should not be interrupted
but rather the above components jumped off it. This strap should then be attached to a short copper rod fastened to one of the trim tab cylinders or perhaps even lower. This would provide termination to the water in the event of a strike.

Lightening wants the least resistive path to ground. This case water.

OR:

Stay in the cabin and keep your beer can as low as possible.:eek:

lol :D . . . .


good thing i'm a wine drinker and its usually not in a can. :drink:



thanks, good info. Thats what i'm lookin for . . . ..

you asked a pretty darn good question..

i'm hoping to get some good tech on this. One of the problems i can see is that not only does lightning need the path of least resistance it also needs the shortest path. I'm just wondering if grounding the bowrails could actually make it worse? Lightning can also side flash off whetever you've grounded seeking its own shortest path, seeing as the rails are horozontal the potential to flash through the cabin could be higher (that would suck).

Why pick a fight with "God" do you think you can really tell him "I am not ready to leave, go find someone else"??:party-smiley-004:

RHC

Thinking out loud...... In order to really protect yourself I think you might need a mast or something sticking up high out of the water that's grounded??

Dave. Couple years ago at Jocketts, the blow boat next to me was hit by lightening, hit the spar, came down the rigging and blew an 8" hole out the side of it at the base of the chain plate after that a few of my guages didnt work anymore...

Anyway a blowboat trick is to take a decent set of jumpercables, clip one end to the backstay, and toss the other end in the water.