Video yacht being hit by lightning

It says cruising sailboats typically get hit by lightening at least once in their lifetimes, is this true and based on facts? I hate sailing through electric storms, for me I'd rather be caught in bad weather/winds than sail through electric storms because there's sweet fa you can do about the consequence - having said that, I have sailed through several electric storms and never been hit by lightening and only know first hand of one person who has been, so I wonder if the above statement is true?
 
>It says cruising sailboats typically get hit by lightening at least once in their lifetimes, is this true and based on facts? I hate sailing through electric storms, for me I'd rather be caught in bad weather/winds than sail through electric storms because there's sweet fa you can do about the consequence - having said that, I have sailed through several electric storms and never been hit by lightening and only know first hand of one person who has been, so I wonder if the above statement is true?

No it's not true we spent six and a half years in the Caribbean and only one met one yacht that was hit by lighting, you meet hndreds of them.The closest we came was lightning hit the water about 50 yards ahead of the boat and we had Elmo's fire crackling in the rigging.
 
You dont need a direct hit for electronics/electrical systems to be damaged. I've had two near misses in the Med over the last 3 years, both of which required repair/replacement to various systems. I've no idea how close one of those was; the other was perhaps 150m away, that one damaged systems in at least 15 other boats in the same marina - southern Sicily.
 
We have been hit twice, once mid- Atlantic, once in Belize. We have seen/met boats that have been hit in Panama, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Florida, Georgia.....so whilst you may feel that the figure is overlly high it may well be more accurate than you think when you take into account all the cruising boats across the world. It is generally accepted ( University of Florida research) that 20% of boats in that state are hit by lightening every year!
 
KellysEye said:
No it's not true we spent six and a half years in the Caribbean and only one met one yacht that was hit by lighting, you meet hndreds of them.The closest we came was lightning hit the water about 50 yards ahead of the boat and we had Elmo's fire crackling in the rigging.
Click to expand...

I've absolutely no idea what you're trying to say in your first sentence.
The furry red monsters burning in your rigging must have been quite a sight. How do they compare with the canonised version? ;)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Elmo_from_Sesame_Street.gif
 
I think these figures tend to come from pundits living in one of the hot spots, which are mostly tropical or subtropical, and not typical of our shores, though I know of a couple of friends' boat that have been hit.
 
Had a few close ones.

A couple of years back we were eastbound in the Gib Straits with several other yachts, The one in front of us got hit. When we arrived in Gib we congratulated them for 'taking one for the team' but I dont think they were particularly impressed.....
 
We had a fairly close near miss, one second or less away, off southwest Iona in torrential rain with about two boatlengths of visibility. We'd dropped the sails and were running under engine and autopilot while I was cowering under the spray hood.

A couple of questions to Gerry and others whose boats have been hit;

1. What did you actually experience, what was it like?
2. Where is the safest place to be in that situation?
 
I've had St Elmo's fire in the rig off Orford Ness, definitely sphincter tightening, had a near miss on the Orwell, and off Eastbourne which totally confused the electronics which later reset ok coming into Sovereign Harbour. Scary indeed.
I've only ever heard of one or two boats locally actually hit but did a fair bit of damage.
 
Was on a mooring at Woolverstone on the Orwell in summer 2014 when a series of horrendous lightning storms passed over. At one point I was considering casting off and hiding under the Orwell bridge until it had gone. Everyone I mention it to laughs, what is the consensus?
 
All too familiar in the med :-( when you buy a new boat just make sure you have a good line of contact with your boat supplier
 
About 20 years ago, I got struck by lightning on the Veerse Meere. Obliterated the masthead lights, wind indicator etc., fried the fuse box and blew all the instruments. The boat next to me ( we were on a pontoon on one of the islands) was not hit, but all his instruments were blown. I have been highly anxious, whenever a thunderstorm is around, ever since. The insurance company was, by the way, brilliant. Full amount for repairs for both boats, paid without question, whilst they were still in the Netherlands. I cannot remember the name of the insurance company, but our broker who dealt with the claims was Trafford's. We have been with them ever since. Would never use anyone else.
 
We got hit, or had a near miss, on a mooring at Burnham. It knocked out the GPS, VHF and log and the VHF antenna was just charcoal.
It surprises me that more yachts aren't struck. Take a large lump of lead or iron, fit a tall aluminium spike and set in salt water. What could possibly go wrong?
 
I was hit once while in the Adriatic, not on my boat. Must have been like the one in the video, it was night and after the first few seconds of total blindness we saw small pieces of burning stuff falling down in the cockpit (antenna).
Agree to me being in the middle of a lightning storm it's the most frightening thing that can happen: we spent three nightmarish nights while crossing the ITCZ, flash-bamm flash-bamm all around, sunrise (and the end of convection) was a real blessing.


This is lightning strike density for the month of August, shows how the risk is orders of magnitude lower in northern waters wrt to the Med, at least july aug sept.
fulmini agosto.JPG
 
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