Lightning

[Ixneigh]

Or even a wide copper strip down the inside of the daggerboard trunk. That would be easier. That could be connected to a sheet of copper glued to the outside of the hull.

[sailboatmike]

Just to add to the death conundrum, in a news report today they said the 47,000 people die in the USA every year from overdosing on prescription medicines , so beware of driving in a gang neighbourhood whilst taking your meds when your not wearing you glasses so you cant read the correct dose in a thunder storm in Florida..

The chances of you coming out of that alive are VERY small

[grady]

Doesn't looke good. Probably won't make it through the weekend. Time to max out the cretit cards, Party on me.

[LoHo]

Given enough time, every activity's survival rate goes to zero...

[vizwhiz]

Just curious, if you had to be inside the boat when it got hit where in the boat would you have liked to have been? What did things look like on the inside?

Boat... Personally, i think i would stay in the forward part of the rear berth. Farthest area away from chainplates and rigging, that i can tell anyway. Also not on top of any wiring, at least in my boat. And not directly under the mast. I suspect i would lay there with the admiral praying that we don't get hit by lightning.

From the inside of the boat you couldn't tell anything had happened, except for the exact spot where the lightning passed through the hull. There was a circle of white inside about three inches in diameter where the fiberglass had delaminated. When i ground it out, the inner layers were black and appeared charred, but everything was still intact. The rest of the interior was just as dirty as i had left it!

I ground only a small amount of the interior off in order to leave the main layers of heavy weave intact as much as possible. I didn't grind all the way through the exterior. I left it continuous so i could lay up a few layers inside for strength, then ground down from the outside to repai. Again, the hole itself was really small, and the charred area was also very small. I didn't want to take off any more than necessary to repair the hole since this was below the waterline.

[Steven James]

I was a member of the sea explorers when I was a kid .We had this old wooden sailboat built in the 30,s being from southwest fla. we had these chains that we would attach to the rigging and drop them in the water .thank god we never had to see if they worked or not.we got caught out several times while racing in the gulf of mexico. some got pretty scary .but great learning experiences .

[Obelix]

Great discussion, but what to do if the admiral is scared of thunderstorms
Wanted to do the BEER cruise next weekend, but so far there are thunderstorms in the forecast every day and most nights.
Remember, if the admiral isn't happy, you're not happy.

Obelix

[BOAT]

Just curious, if you had to be inside the boat when it got hit where in the boat would you have liked to have been? What did things look like on the inside?

Boat... Personally, i think i would stay in the forward part of the rear berth. Farthest area away from chainplates and rigging, that i can tell anyway. Also not on top of any wiring, at least in my boat. And not directly under the mast. I suspect i would lay there with the admiral praying that we don't get hit by lightning.

From the inside of the boat you couldn't tell anything had happened, except for the exact spot where the lightning passed through the hull. There was a circle of white inside about three inches in diameter where the fiberglass had delaminated. When i ground it out, the inner layers were black and appeared charred, but everything was still intact. The rest of the interior was just as dirty as i had left it!

I ground only a small amount of the interior off in order to leave the main layers of heavy weave intact as much as possible. I didn't grind all the way through the exterior. I left it continuous so i could lay up a few layers inside for strength, then ground down from the outside to repai. Again, the hole itself was really small, and the charred area was also very small. I didn't want to take off any more than necessary to repair the hole since this was below the waterline.

Yup, that's what I was thinking too - I always thought I would cower in the aft bunk under my blankets in a lighting storm.