"Terry K" wrote

The resistance profile may reveal that the shroud becomes the main
dissapative element in the discharge path. It may well vaporize, and
you at sea with sails in a squall?

My rig would stand without the forward lowers which I would use.

Ground the base of the mast as directly as possible to a bare keel or
clean plate, keeping in mind you must plan a fusible weak point
somewhere, but hopefully not where it will cause the mistress to burn
her bum.


I'm not talking about doing it right here or protecting the boat. The only
aim is to increase the chances of remaining alive on a possibly wrecked boat
to deal with the aftermath. I'm just looking for a quick stop gap to at
least do something until I can put in a proper system. It's tough on a boat
with ballast encapsulated inside a fiberglass keel.

I would not want to be making connections grounding equipment once the
storm gets close enough to make it seem an urgent neccessity

That's the reason for rapid deployment. BTW doppler radar available on your
cell phone from the Weather Channel is a great service where there is
coverage. I've used it both flying and boating to avoid and plan for
storms.

I'm glad I sail and plan to sail where there aren't a lot of thunderstorms.
Most of them lose a lot of steam when they get to the cold water in this
part of the world. They continue to rumble with cloud to cloud strikes but
not many of them are still putting out a lot of cloud to ground strikes. I
can't remember hearing of a vessel struck north of Cape Cod although I'm
sure it has happened.

--
Roger Long