Here along the Gulfcoast of Floida, we have some of the most spectacular lightning and thunderstorms during the summer that you could imagine. Most of the time, if you're on the water, and see it coming, it's already too late to escape.

Just wondered if any of you have had any exciting experiences with it.

I have been sailing for over 23 years and have been caught in a couple of storms that I couldn't get away. And, only once was I stung, and that will really get your attention.

Backin the old days, the 'Round the Island Race in the Floriday Pandhandle was actually run during this time of the year -- June. About the third year it was run, a bad thunderstorm came through (at night with about 150+ boats on the water), and that was one of the main reasons that it was eventually shifted to September like it is run now. All we have to do now is dodge the hurricanes. During that race in June, around 10PM, we were sailing a Stiletto 23, about 15 miles from the finish and were overtaken by the worst thunder and lightning storm I've ever experienced. It was bad enough with all the thunder and lightning, then throw in 30 knots of wind with 40 knot gusts in the dark! Well, you get the picture. The smell of ozone was ever present, and the wet hair on the back of your neck would stand up right before a strike. Lightning was striking all around us for about 30 minutes as we sailed on trying to control the boat. Finally a strike came down about 30 yards right in front of the boat. (I saw it.) Instantly the boat picked up the charge, it arced off the sidestay, hit me in the shoulder, zapped my heart (like trying to start a car with the engine already running) and came out my opposite elbow and back to the boat. Of couse this happened in about a mili-second second or less. First thought was - "we are dead and that didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would". The thunder and lighning were simultaneous, and for about a second after the event, I couldn't see or hear anything. Then as I felt the rain hitting my face, I realized I was ok, other than a funny feeling in my elbow. After a few seconds, nobody on board had said a word, so I asked, "did you guys feel that?" The guy next to me had it arc between his feet, and the other guy on deck was laying down on the front tramp, and picked it up all over. He asked me if he was glowing. We managed to keep the boat upright, and the storm dissapated about 30 minutes later, but I always wondered why the lightning missed the boat and didn't go for that 36 foot aluminum mast we had stuck up in the air?

Hope all of you are safe this summer and careful around lightning. Here is a website that you might find interesting.

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/week.htm

Be safe, and have fun. See you on the water.

Don

ARC22 #2226

Thanks for the interesting story about your lightning experience. What were you holding onto or touching at the time the electrical charge went through you? And I assume that your boat wasn't grounded?

I am a proponent of NOT grounding a sailboat, because I believe in the "cone of protection" offered by the mast and stays, and I think a sailboat is less likely to have a direct hit if it is not grounded.

However, I have very little evidence to back up my belief except for reports like yours, where lightning hits very near the boat and may zap the people on the boat but not have catastrophic effects.

There is a long thread about lightning on this forum. It was started in 2002 and revived with new posts in May of 2003. Here is the link to get to it:
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

So far I have not heard any reports of people being seriously injured or killed on sailboats because of lightning strikes. As in the other lightning thread on this forum, I am still interested in any personal experiences or second-hand knowledge about lightning incidents involving sailboats.

Once when we were delivering a boat down the Intracoastal, we met some people living aboard a big trimaran. They were in port for repairs because of a lightning strike. Their boat was grounded and they got hit and the lightning wiped out all of their electronics and supposedly the lightning zapped around through the boat and even went right underneath the pillow of somebody who was sleeping in his bunk but did not affect him at all. Really weird, and scary.

That's the first time I have heard from someone that was touched by lighting while sailing. There must be more out there. Anyone?

Every time I say anything about lightning I get some college grad in physics jumping all over me about it. But, I do speak from experience.
I have never seen or heard of a boat that is sailing and moving get hit by lightning. I have been zapped much like your instance, but that was not a direct lightning strike. I think that was just a radiation of the strike being disbursed broadly on the wetness.
I CORK on a Tornado we were racing in a storm. The lightning was striking all around us as well. The helmsman was using an aluminum tiller and kept getting lots of tingles and kept dropping the tiller extension because of it. But, had that been a strike, he would be dead.
On the other hand, I was on the trapeze. I looked at that wire running from the mast and aimed at my bellybutton and decided to get the hell off that trap.
Also, after many year of yacht deliveries and running charters to the Bahamas, the only boats that were struck by lightning were the ones that were grounded. And most had pretty bad damage.
It just seems to me that when you put a grounding wire from your backstay into the water, you are saying, "Come on, Lightning, Give me your best shot. And by the way, follow the backstay down to the water and leave me alone."
But, lightning seems to want to find its own path when it hits. And that was where I saw through hulls blown right out of the boats (Seems those folks decided to ground to the thru hulls.)
I know I will probably never convince anyone to purposely go out in a storm to prove my point, but nonetheless, I still have not seen any strikes on sailing boats that are not grounded.
Usually I get the reply, "I saw a slslslsl 16 get blown apart." and with more questioning we find that the boat was sitting on the beach.
So, flame away, college grads.
Rick

That is a quote from my husband, Rick White, and I am glad it is on the record, because here is another quote from him when I was crewing for him during a lightning storm:

"Don't worry about it -- stay on the trapeze."

For those of us that have been lucky enough to spend a large portion of our lives on the water, lightning can provide that little SPARK of excitment.

We had a storm moving in and had just put the kids in the car and like 30 or so other people I was rushing to get the mast down as there was lightning all around. I was standing on the beach when lightning struck a power pole across the street. Everyone standing on the beach was shocked and while it wasn't much fun taking that shock the sound of all of us on the beach yelling the death scream at the same time had a certian humor to it. Thankfully the kids didn't get the hit.

Mike

I don't know, but I think if there is lightning all around, the last thing I would want to be doing is lowering a mast. You shoulda been in the car with the kids. You can survive without a boat, but the kids need a father.

A good friend lost his O'Day 27 last week. It was moored in fresh water in the St. John's River at Palatka, while he was in N. Carolina for the summer. A strike blew a small hole in each side (below the waterline naturally) and there was a hole around the sink drain- that had been a metal thru-hull fitting. But the boat made a lovely new home for the alligator who took up residence in the former ****- we have a photo!- before the insurance company came for the salvage op.

DACarls,
The important question is, was the boat grounded? And/or did it have an antenna on the top of the mast?

Rick,

I agree with you 100%. I have read about the two schools of thought for sailboats and lightning protection. They are 180 degrees opposed, and and both advocates for each stand by them. One says that grounding will actually attract lighning, and the other says you don't need it. In my humble opinion, grounded or not, if lightning takes a direct hit on your boat, it's going to blow the bottom out of it, and probably take out anybody on it. My experience tells me that if lightning was ever goining to hit us that night, it should have, but missed a good chance. Our boat was not grounded, and we had that stike hit so close to us, but not on us. That 36 foot aluminum mast was without a doubt the highest thing on the water at that time. By the way, I was using an aluminum hiking stick with a rubber handle.

Thanks for the reply.

Don

Well, I had the mast down at the time of the strike, but would do the same thing given the same situation. A boat on a trailer with a mast up in 40 MPH winds won't stay up very long. I was more concerned with it blowing over and the mast striking someone or their property since there were still quite a few people around including kids,......... decisions, decisions.

Mike

I began my cat sailing in Wagga Wagga, Australia on an inland lake about 600 kms from the nearest coast. The lake traditionaly had very light breeze except when fronts came through.

I was quiet young at the time and whenever a front came through we would hit the lake for a sail and a scare. Biggest squall was 60 knots during a race and there was not a boat left standing..... Allot of damage that weekend.

Many times at regattas the young and stupid whilst usually under the influence of alchole would push out for a sail at night (with no lights) and have fun whilst thunder storms ripped through. Some of the most exciting sailing I have ever done...... could not see anything until lightning would light up the lake.

Fortunatly nobody got hurt and now I am older and maybe a bit wiser, I would never put my life at risk like that again and recomed no body else dose.......

But some pretty fond memories no the less

Also recently had an experience on Pittwater in Sydney where an approaching thunder storm sent us back to shore seeking cover. We were sitting in the car on the boat ramp watching yachts while waiting for the weather to clear when lighting stuck the water about 30 foot behind a yacht under motor........ We were left wondering why it did not hit the mast of the yacht.