lightening strikes boat on trailer

Wow and double wow. That is the most serious damage as a diect result of a strike I have seen.

I got hit at anchor on a steel boat and while the masthead stuff was vaporised there was no structural damage. The hul was magnetised but that is another story.

I know of a number of G/F boats that have been hit while in the water and their damage is similar to mine masthead stuff gone and some all electronics fried but n structural damage.

Would the boat being on the trailor make the strike more damaging? I am wondering why the mast seems to have melted. Was it laid from pushpit to pulpit?
 
Hang on a minute, chaps. That's not what "happens when lightning striks a 29' sailboat that's on a trailer": that's what happens when a GRP boat catches fire. The lightning strike was was only the source of ignition.

I've seen the results of a packed storage yard full of GRP boat going up (the fire at Crinan) and it was similarly unpretty.
 
lightening

Ubergeekian said:
Hang on a minute, chaps. That's not what "happens when lightning striks a 29' sailboat that's on a trailer": that's what happens when a GRP boat catches fire. The lightning strike was was only the source of ignition.

I've seen the results of a packed storage yard full of GRP boat going up (the fire at Crinan) and it was similarly unpretty.
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I thought what had happened was that the lightening had come through the wooden roof and hit the biggest, highest most grounded bit of metal it could find, through the mast, through the keel and setting the boat on fire

I wonder how much of the damage was the lightening and how much the burning roof

so, next question - anyone else seen what happens when a boat ashore gets hit by lightening

I assume it must happen all the time

I must say it is really frightening stuff

I was working in the states on a cattle ranch - I had just closed a steel gate - leading a horse - when the whole fence-line got struck.

both I and the horse (who was wearing steel shoes) got excessively tingled.

ten seconds before I had my hand on the gate

sparks everywhere but no visible damage apart from a bit of singed foliage

horse never did like that gate anymore

Dylan
 
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I had a lightening strike close to the house about 15 years back - about 20mtrs away. It changes the earth potential locally & massive currents flow down earth conductors of all electric/ electronic equipment nearby. It destroyed abot 2k's worth of TV, HiFi, computers, phones etc etc. Bummer was that I wasn't insured. So it goes. I am now. :rolleyes:


The induced currents in our overhead phone line blew holes in the cable at a dozen poles along the route. BT ended up replacing the whole 3 miles of cable.
 
Searush said:
I had a lightening strike close to the house about 15 years back - about 20mtrs away. It changes the earth potential locally & massive currents flow down earth conductors of all electric/ electronic equipment nearby.
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If you calculate the potential distribution in a half-plane with a point current source of lightning magnitude, you find that standing on two legs is a thoroughly bad idea in a thunderstorm. This used to be one of the first exercises I had students do when I was teaching electromagnetism ... on paper only, although I like to think that there are people all over the place standing on one leg during storms thanks to me.
 
TQA said:
Would the boat being on the trailor make the strike more damaging? I am wondering why the mast seems to have melted. Was it laid from pushpit to pulpit?
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Indeed, no way for the lightning to go due to the rubber tyres. The ligthning must have arc'ed with the trailer's posts through the fiberglass setting it alight.
 
Lady Campanula said:
Sheesh!

In 2009 I helped take a boat from Cardiff to Brest, and we endured an all-night electrical storm of the North Cornish coast that fried all the Coastguard's antennae. The boat owner sat in the cockpit throughout, petrified for hours, as lightning sizzled into the sea all around.

Me, I slept through it, oblivious.

:cool:
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There is nowere worse to be than in a lightning storm with a sailboat.
 
I hate lightening, it is so unpredictable.

A friend's parter was killed climbing in the lake district by a lightening strike.

A dinghy in a team race I was in was struck and the crew paralysed. Fortunately they made a complete recovery after a few hours.

A glassfibre glider flying from a club near mine got too close to a big cu nimb and was struck. One minute the crew were happily sitting in their glider trying to find lift. The next minute they were still sitting in their seats but surrounded only by glassfibre confetti, the plane just exploded. Fortunately they both had parachutes and survived to tell the story.

The theory for the damage was that metal control cable conduits and/or the cables themselves conducted the current almost instantaneously throughout the glider and the resultant heating caused the minute water content of the glassfibre to vapourise disintigrating the glassfibre in the process.
 
Lightning strike on boat

Yes I am inclined to think this story is untypical of lightning strike. Presumably the mast was stowed on the cabin top. The rubber tyres of the trailer would have been a bit discouraging to lightning strike.
I might even suggest that the lightning struck the end of the barn first setting fire to the barn.
I think it very unusual/ unfortunate that the boat burned, probably with assistance from gas system and then fuel tanks. The mast is more likely to melt from the fire than through high lightning current. (even if vertical) It being large dimensions of low resistance aluminium.
If the mast is up then current damage would be (in theory) be to the rest of the boat in the path from mast to ground. (or water). olewill
 
What's the One Legged Thing All About

Ubergeekian said:
If you calculate the potential distribution in a half-plane with a point current source of lightning magnitude, you find that standing on two legs is a thoroughly bad idea in a thunderstorm. This used to be one of the first exercises I had students do when I was teaching electromagnetism ... on paper only, although I like to think that there are people all over the place standing on one leg during storms thanks to me.
Click to expand...

Okay so what's going on? What is it about one leg that's safer than two, is it reduced cross section making a path through the body less attractive? Is standing on one leg while sailing a worthwhile tactic when lightening is occurring?

I understand that when on a mountain the advice was to stand in a hole squatting down, or was it on a rock, off the ground, do you know what would be best, I can honestly remember, although the bit about taking off the rucksack I remember?
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Okay so what's going on? What is it about one leg that's safer than two, is it reduced cross section making a path through the body less attractive? Is standing on one leg while sailing a worthwhile tactic when lightening is occurring?
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The current dissipates to earth with a hemispherical distribution from the point of lightning strike. Since the earth has resistance, that means that the potential/voltage also varies with distance from the strike. From memory it can still be 10kV/meter some distance away, which would sting a little if you were standing with your legs even slightly apart. There is no problem if you have both feet equidistant from the strike, but if you don't know where that will be it's safest (if not necessarily terribly practical) to hop everywhere.
 
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