I didn't say a cat is less likely to be struck than a regular boat. It's just that I have been involved with beach-cat sailing for over 40 years, so I would have been more likely to hear about lightning hitting a beach cat than, for instance, a Thistle. But, actually, I have never heard of it directly hitting any type of small sailboat on the water. Just on land, as I said.

As far as big sailboats, we have personally heard of several reports of them being hit by lightning, but I think in virtually every case the boats were grounded. Even with the grounding, some of those suffered significant damage. If the grounding is not done properly, the lightning can go shooting all around through the interior of the boat. In one case, it traveled right under somebody's pillow in their bunk.

I think the theory about the "cone of protection" (which I believe in) might not apply, however, to unstayed masts. I think the metal stays play an important part in providing the protection. So would you be less protected if you use line instead of cable for stays? I don't know.

I think it is true about powerboats being more likely to be hit by lightning than sailboats. A guy was crossing Biscayne Bay in a Boston Whaler and was hit in the head by lightning (obviously, fatal).

The biggest lightning attracter on powerboats, though, is an antenna.

There is a long, very interesting thread somewhere on this forum about lightning.

But it is all just theories and opinions, and nobody seems to know for sure how to best protect against lightning -- just like nobody knows for sure how to protect against shark attacks.

Funny thing. When I used to work for the Sizzler company, one of the minor selling points was that the boat was safer in lightning because it was automatically grounded, since the hulls were made of aluminum. But now I'm not so sure that is a good thing.