Sailing in a thunderstorm

[Michael Rogers]

No I haven't, but it occurred to me, this afternoon sailing on Rudyard Lake (not a lot of wind, so rowing practice on the way back) and when it started raining, that I might have been, given the weather forecast. And then I wondered whether there were particular dangers, and what, if anything, one could do about them.

So, apart from 'Don't do it in the first place", does anyone have any helpful advice? A car acts as a Faraday cage, and is a relatively very safe place do be in a thunderstorm. I suspect that an open epoxy-ply dinghy with a 15 ft CF mast definitely is NOT!

Many years ago, in the Harz Mountains in Germany, two anglers near us, sitting on the bank of a small lake with their lines dangling in the water, were killed in a sudden storm when their rods were struck. And, as a junior hospital doctor working in 'Casualty', I met a farm worker (with a septic hand) who I discovered had previously been struck by lightning - twice. But - sailing? Tony, surely you've managed to be struck as part of your 'rich tapestry' ? Do tell.

Michael

[EDWIN DAVIES]

I remember crewing in an Enterprise on Rutland water in a thunderstorm, the skipper stayed as far aft as he could go. You are OK he said, it it will earth through the mast to the water!

We survived.

Ed

[Graham W]

The late great Frank Dye used to take car jump leads with him on his expeditions in his Wayfarer.  During thunderstorms, he would clip one to each shroud and trail the ends in the water. Crude but probably effective.

[Jim Levang]

Michael:

Scroll down a ways under the topic "BayCruiser 20 Build" in the "Home Builders' Area" section of the forum for an explanation of my "lightening attenuation system". We sail in a place where lightening is an actual danger (one death sailing last year) and I felt the need to do something as some of the otherwise excellent features of the Swallow Boats line (carbon fiber spars, water tanks) could be problematic in a lightening strike. I'm not so sure that what I did will help but it does help my mental state.

Jim

[Graham W]

Jim,

In your BC20 build post, you mention that your lightning attenuation cable bangs about inside your hollow mast.

I've heard that one way of preventing this is to secure some cable ties with their tails on, and at a different angle for each tie, all the way down the cable. The springy tails hold the cable away from the mast wall and voilà - noisy cable misery banished!