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| Struck by Lightning while under way | |
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| I guess if you live in the lightning capital of the
world, it's unavoidable. Sooner or later the boat will be hit by lightning.
However, usually it occurs when no one is on board. In our case, we
had a front row seat as we were hit by lightning on what began as a
perfect sailing afternoon. Southwinds, a sailing magazine, recently
featured an article on lightning strikes and boats in their June 2009
issue, and mentioned my experience in their story. Click here to read my Lightning hit story in print. (It's on page 44.) Afternoon storms are as regular as clockwork in summer
months in central Florida. For that reason we usually leave the dock
just as offshore winds are building in mid morning and try and be back
in our slip before the storms hit. One Saturday, household chores delayed
our departure and we didn't motor out of the marina until almost noon.
Inevitably clouds began building a couple of hours later, and unfortunately
for us, a monster storm cell formed just offshore of Cape Canaveral,
FL. I watched it build into rolling jet black clouds and it wasn't long
after that I could see lightning bolts all around the perimeter of the
storm cell. What was even worse was it was heading our way. |
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| This is a photo of the top of my mast before the lightning hit | |
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| This is the 'after' photo. |
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| We immediately checked the boat for damage.
Thankfully, a quick check showed we were seaworthy.... The engines were
still running and we weren't taking on water, but the wind was growing
even stronger. With boat engines at max RPM, Catalpa was no longer making
headway and in fact, according to the handheld GPS, was being pushed
backward. There was
no choice but to put the helm over and run with the storm while
picking bits and pieces of mast fittings of our hair at the same
time. So much for my storm boat management technique. This is exactly
what I had been taught not to do, but there were no other options. In
this case we dodged a bullet as the storm moved on within 30 minutes
leaving us to reflect on our good fortune. I set our course back towards
the marina. After arriving safely in our slip, it was time to determine the extent of the damage. I was fortunate that Catalac Catamarans with inboard diesels apparently have a natural path for the electricity to follow. There was no boat hull or structural damage at all. All of my circuit breakers had tripped. When I dropped the electrical panel to take a look, I discovered that every breaker was covered in black carbon. The high voltage charge had 'jumped' every breaker. In other words the circuit breakers were in fact no protection at all against lightning strikes. Through Hulls, rigging and hull were intact, However, on board electronics were another matter entirely. This was a disaster: |
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| Fried Electronics |
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| What is interesting is what wasn't damaged. Two cell phones we had on the saloon table were unaffected as was a Canon Digital
Rebel camera and a hand held GPS. Each item was operating at the time. In other words, anything that was connected to the boat's DC wiring
was fried and anything portable was unaffected. Keep this in mind when you think you need to install expensive electronics. I'm devising a
method of disconnecting valuable equipment should this situation arise again. Apparently if it's not connected to DC wiring, you have a good
chance the equipment will survive a lightning strike. I had a lot of help with the repairs. Steve Ramsey (Catalac 8M S/V Kelly Ann) was generous with his time and in lending me his mast lowering pole. Allan House, a local boat repair expert, was very interested in watching us lower a Catalac, tabernacle mounted mast, and ended up not only lending a hand, but leading the repair project. Between the three of us, we unstepped the mast and completely rewired it with DC wiring and new low loss VHF coax. In addition we mounted:
All of this was accomplished in just one afternoon. I'm now a huge fan of tabernacles and deck stepped masts in general. We were able to lower the mast onto solid ground which allowed the mast repairs to proceed quickly and safely. There is a controversy on installing lightning protection systems on boats. I have none, Lightning entered the boat upon striking the top of my mast and seemed to follow the boats DC wiring before exiting the boat through the propeller shafts of the twin diesel inboard engines. Neither of us even felt so much as a tingle of electricity even though we were barefoot and soaking wet. As for the other equipment lost? As of this writing, most has been replaced. I actually improved the radio situation. Look at the radio cabinet page to see what I came up with. As you can imagine, this was an expensive lesson but at least we are safe and the boat is brand new from mast tip to deck. I have to wonder what the outcome would have been had Catalpa been equipped with new diesel engines with electronic engine controls. I'm certain the electronics would have been fried along with everything else connected to 12 volts DC. But would the engines still run? Also this completely ended an idea I had in the back of my mind for sometime about going with a total electric drive. Electronic Drive Controllers would have been toasted crispy and at a minimum, that would have been a an even more expensive afternoon. As an aside.... we no longer sail on sunny summer afternoons in Florida. |
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