On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 08:48:03 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

wrote:

Protecting a sailboat from lightning strikes is pretty much a fools
errand.

This document, which Larry provided the link to, contriticts you with actual
facts by researchers.

http://www.thomson.ece.ufl.edu/lightning/

See damage distribution graphs. There will usually be some damage and some
strikes will overwhelm any system. However, saying protection is pointless
is like saying it's a fools errand to wear seatbelts because some car
crashes will be fatal anyway.

Everything on the water is about odds. Stack the deck in your favor when
you can.

Do you wear a nomex suit and crash helmet when driving a car. Does
your car have a fire suppression system? Those would be a LOT more
important to your safety than anything you can do to protect a
sailboat from lightning.

By the time you equipped your boat with what would be needed to
protect you in SOME lightning hits, it would no longer be useable as a
sailboat. Those huge copper fields you would have to drag around would
really slow you down...

Getting hit in the head by the boom is a much greater threat, anyway,
if you want to go by statistics.

Simply falling overboard has a very high mortality rate.

Lightning protection on a sailboat is a fools errand.