Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#33
![]()
posted to rec.boats.cruising
|
|||
|
|||
![]()
Stephen Trapani inscribed in red ink for all to know:
Charlie Morgan wrote: On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:34:33 -0400, "Roger Long" wrote: Like the vast majority of fiberglass boat owners, I'm sailing around in a boat with next to no lightning protection. I have run a heavy copper grounding wire from a chain plate to a couple of through hulls directly below. That will help bleed off some charge and slightly reduce the chance of being struck. If I am hit however, I imagine it will make the results worse. This is on my "someday" list and would be on the "already done" list if I sailed more to the south. I nearly 40 years of sailing in this part of the world, I've only once been in a situation that I was huddled below trying to figure out the best place to be when the bolt hit. That was long ago enough that I haven't gotten as worked up about the issues as I should. I don't know as much about the subject as I should since I've spent my professional life working with boats that have metal masts welded on top of metal superstructures welded to metal hulls. So, I throw out this idea for comment as a suggestion for either an interim solution or for cruising grounds where energetic storms are too infrequent to justify a major retrofit. How about a couple of plastic coated battery cables with a snap shackle on one end and a length of chain on the other. If it looks like you are going to get caught right in the path of an energetic storm, the kind where you'll want to either anchor or drift while you seek the safest place in the boat, just clip them to the shrouds and drop over the side. Nearly straight run down from the stays (at least if chain plates are not too far inboard), lots of surface area in the chain, plastic coated wire to protect the topsides. You wouldn't want to cruise around with this rig but it seems like it might at least keep a strike from sinking the boat by blowing a hole in it. Honestly? There is absolutely nothing you can do to a 30 or 40 foot boat to protect it in the slightest. It may make you feel better, but there's truly no way you are going to harness and direct a lightning strike that hits your mast. Lightning will vaporize (literally) your battery cables. POOF! The only thing that MAY help you is to always anchor with boats that have much taller masts than yours. How about a heavy wire connecting keel bolts to mast bolts, less than a foot apart in my bilge? Stephen The problem is that a lightening strike is a pulse - it is not DC. Corners in the wire path look like inductors at high frequencies, and may force the lightening to leave the conductor and take a straighter path (at least in its mind) to earth, avoiding the conductor altogether. All wiring paths should be very heavy gauge, and as straight as possible. It might work. It might not, but one always takes the precautions, right? bob s/v Eolian Seattle, where a lightening bolt becomes the first item on the evening news... |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Emergency beacon info from USCG/USCG Aux | General | |||
radios & electronics, lightning protection | Cruising | |||
Lightning protection | ASA | |||
lightning grounds | Cruising | |||
Lightning protection for a small cruiser? Dynaplate? Metal wishbone mast? J Pole antenna? | Boat Building |