I heard of one hit- Sue (Mrs. Mike) Walsh, was hit on a Hobie 14 many years ago in Jacksonville while sailing on the river at the Rudder Club. She had no apparent injuries but was all upset! after sailing in. After telling her story, some Non-believers went out and pushed over its all- aluminum mast, as a bow fitting had melted through its attachment. That is the only people on cats lightning story I have heard of- in 30 years

Dr. Ewen Thomson (Dr. Lightning) from the U. Florida Lightning lab gave a lecture to our Gainesville, Florida sailing group 4 years ago. See his excellent techical story at http://www.thomson.ece.ufl.edu/lightning/

I asked about doing a carbon fiber mast shot during the induced lightning experiments run at Camp Blanding: this involves shooting a conductive wire up into a likely cloud in summer storm conditions, to evoke a strike. It works dramatically according to their high-speed video tapes! If you have US$150,000 they would be happy to run a test on your mast. Yup- it would be hit and badly damaged...but how does that help you?