Grounding Plate

[Jerry Hammernik]

My CD28 was struck by lightning prior to my time with her. The previous owner reported the electronics took a hit but there was no structural damage to the boat. I saw a CD30 after one of our LMCDOA Rondi's that had been struck. She was on the hard and it looked like someone had taken a pistol inside the boat and fired rounds out of the boat at the waterline. It's certainly unpredictable.

[Keith]

For those who do not have faith in the experts, you could try this idea;

http://svbellastar.blogspot.com/2012/10 ... trike.html

It is probably as good as some of the other ideas, cheaper than adding a new plate, and something that the kids might enjoy.

Now that put a smile on my face. Thank You

[Neil Gordon]

For those who do not have faith in the experts, you could try this idea;

http://svbellastar.blogspot.com/2012/10 ... trike.html

It is probably as good as some of the other ideas, cheaper than adding a new plate, and something that the kids might enjoy.

Now that put a smile on my face. Thank You

Call them "folk remedies" if you like, but there are, as we know, countless mythical ways of keeping a vessel safe. Will gluing a Barbie doll to your keel keep you from grounding? Sure, at least as well as thousands of carved figureheads did protecting their vessels and crews.

[Keith]

A guy that I worked with many years ago had a Typhoon that sunk on it's mooring one night after an electrical storm. When they pulled it up he found a 2" diameter hole in the hull below the water line with burnt edges around the circumference of the hole. He was the smallest sail boat in the mooring field. I have no conclusion just some more data to add. I'm not sure if Typhoons have grounding plates or not??

Keith

[John Stone]

It's a strange thing. There are boats hit that are grounded and are damaged. Boats not grounded and don't get a scratch and vise versa. Both groups get hit and have some but not major damage. It's the "why is that so" question I'd like to know more about. One theory I have read is that when it's raining, and the boat deck is wet lightening can hit the mast, run down the mast or standing rigging, run across the deck on the film of water and leap to the ocean, bay, river etc. There just seems to be no end to the paths lightening will take.

I have seen some scary pictures of lightening damage on boats but I never got a sense of which ones were grounded (and how) and which ones were not. And was there an agenda by the author to push for one way or the other--were you getting the whole picture.

I have read about several long distance sailors that said they would never have lightening grounding inside their boats and they all had sailed through tremendous electrical storms. I recall that is James Baldwin's view though I certainly would not speak for him. The Pardeys throughly grounded Taliesin though I believe it was all external. Long external chain plates that reached to just below the waterline and the bobstay was tied into a bronze "bang strip" that ran down the leading edge of the keel and then bolted into the external lead ballast. I suspect there is no "bonding" on Taliesin which is generally considered a no no on wood boats and in fact more and more surveyors are suggesting not to bond underwater metal together. Isolation is protection or words to that effect.

I remain on the fence for now with my fingers crossed. The Lego man seems like a good idea.