As Sam said, grounding works if it is done right. But if it is not done right, it wreaks havoc with your boat and can be deadly. And you don't know whether it is done right until you have actually suffered a direct strike. Personally, I would rather take a chance with the "Farraday Cage" theory.

Once upon a long time ago, Rick and I were delivering a Seawind 24 (catamaran) from Miami to Nassau. We had to sail straight through because we had a deadline for getting there. We were crossing the Bahama Bank during the night. It was my shift on the helm, and Rick was below sleeping. We had the boat grounded with an alligator clip on the shroud and some cable dragging in the water.

Overhead was clear, starry sky. But several miles ahead, directly in our path, was a black hole, no stars. And then the lightning began, like a picket fence across the horizon, with continual, multiple strikes from cloud to water. It was my worst nightmare.

I woke Rick and asked him if we could anchor and wait until the storm went away. Mr. Punctuality responded, "Nope, we have to stay on schedule." And he went back to sleep.

I continued sailing straight toward the electrical fence, praying the storm would dissipate before I got there.

Finally, I woke Rick again and asked, "Could we at least sail around the end of it, where there isn't any lightning?"

"Nope," said the captain. "Don't worry about it. Maintain your compass heading." Yeah, right. And he went back to sleep.

So there I was, all alone in the night, sailing toward the monster, trying to find a hole to get through where the lightning might be a little less frequent. And the whole time I was agonizing about the alligator clip, knowing that it was going to make it easier for the lightning to find me. I just wanted to make myself and the boat as invisible as possible.

So right before I got to the black hole and the picket fence, I took off the alligator clip. The stars disappeared as I sailed beneath the storm clouds. I braced myself for what I thought was certain death, while Rick slept peacefully. And then, miraculously, stars again appeared above me, and I looked back to see the black hole and picket fence now behind me.

This, of course, proves nothing. All I know is that I removed the grounding device and I did not get hit by lightning. I have always been curious about what would have happened if I had left the alligator clip on.....but not curious enough to go out and play in lightning to experiment.