Lightning

[hmason]

On Saturday last we experienced a vicious thunderstorm with high winds, thunder and lightning. A bolt of lightning hit the water behind our slip. The picture is of the VHF antenna on the boat next to ours.

The next morning our engines wouldn't start and our Garmin displays displayed incorrect information and did not display AIS at all. We are insured by BoatUS/Geico; I called and reported the incident. Within 2-days they assigned an adjuster and a surveyor to our claim. The surveyor came today. He took numerous pictures but would not let me turn anything on.

The surveyor told me to engage a CAT technician, a Northern Lights generator tech, a Garmin electronics expert, a marine electrician, a stabilizer tech and to have them go over every system on the boat and to provide repair estimates. He said to ask the electrician to start at the shore power cords and check out every circuit on the boat. He said that the owner, family and guests' safety is their primary concern. I must say, I'm impressed.

 

[rslifkin]

That seems like a good response from insurance! Sounds like they want to know exactly what's damaged so the incident doesn't turn into anything long and drawn out, but can just be fixed and over with.

 

[hmason]

The surveyor also said that the claim remains open for a period of time since things can show up later on as well

 

[psneeld]

Sorry to hear Howard.

Towed a charter boat a couple years back that got hit or next to a hit.

The sister charter boat got hit and both tall VHF antennas were taken off at the metal joint about a 1/3 of the way down.

Never heard the report of all the damage but the one with engine damage was out of commission for a short while.....

 

[hmason]

Thanks Scott. I'm sure the ECMs are fried.

 

[High Wire]

A couple we knew had a lightning strike and the damage bill was over $50k ten years ago.

 

[Lollygag1]

I have been involved with lightning studies, extremely destructive. Check out this site from the University of Florida Lightning Research Center. The videos are amazing.

http://www.lightning.ece.ufl.edu/

 

[Choices]

PO on our boat got all new electronics, vacuflush, batteries, etc. One of the reasons I bought it.

 

[Hippocampus]

Side flashes can cause further damage that may not be immediately discernible. Glad to hear insurance is open to clams at a later date. If boat is hauled would go over hull with fine toothed comb. Would remove what parts of interior you can to look as well. Acquaintance had pin hole sized defects scattered about where burn through occurred. Not just near conductive metals like through hulls.

Seem to recall there is/was a Florida professor who opened a company for lightning damage mitigation for boats. If anyone recalls his name and links please post. If I had a catamaran in Florida I’d sure want to do everything possible mitigate the risk. In fact if I boated in Florida would give serious thought to a metal boat . Feel more comfortable inside a faraday box.

 

[mvweebles]

Interesting article from Steve D. There are some decent tips, but I had trouble sourcing some of the fast-trip protection so didn't fully follow through.

https://www.proboat.com/2016/04/3530/

Peter

 

[psneeld]

Please do not be scared of lightning...I have boated or flown in it all my life.

Some of my friends have had boats or their aircraft hit....a sorry fact of life but it is still a longshot and if anyone was in the way higher chance of having something hit, it's probablythose who have lived in Florida their whole life and had larger boats for at least 50 years...

Then please join in and post your experiences and knowledge of boats being hit/damaged from nearby strikes.

They tend to offset the pure stats and "stories" told and keep worry in a place it should be.

As far as mitigating a lightning strike or near miss...do the research and once you see it is all over the place..... well for me I just stopped worrying about it after sailing through a tropical depression 40 years ago in a ketch up the Florida Straits from Marathon to Ft Lauderdale. Saw more lightning than probably I the whole rest of my life and realized a strike was just plain bad luck.... science might apply a lot better to stationary targets...but even then the science I have read is all over the map for protecting your boat/electrical.

I do believe that the minimal bonding system helps, a few improvements more so.... if inclined a good idea if you are one of the few that unfortunately take a strike or near miss. Even more so is the nearly impossible task of disconnecting and true faraday protection for all those sensitive electronics boats have today.

 

[jleonard]

Have the boat hauled and check the thru hulls. Most boats that I know of that had lightening damage also had thru hulls that de zinced. ( I think that’s the correct term?). Also check swim platform brackets.

 

[Hippocampus]

U of Florida/Miami has done a fair amounts of research on boat lightening strikes and incurred damage.

Seems what’s most effective is to provide a path from the boat of low resistance to the water near the surface. Seems up top you should provide cones of protection with strike receivers at the various high points of the boat. For sail this is easy as the downward cone from the top of the mast usually covers the entire boat. For motor several strike points with overlapping cones maybe required.

The paths should be of low enough resistance and robust enough as to prevent side strikes. Internal damage and personal injury is usually due to these strikes that occur across the inside of the boat. The primary strike should not enter the boat allowing the strike to fragment causing these subsidiaries strike paths.

Dissipation of the strike is best achieved along a sharp edge of a metal plate immersed near the surface of the water. The entire system should be independent of the bonding system of the boat and have lower resistance than that system. Given electricity travels on the surface of metal solid wire maybe not have the lowest conductivity but if strands are employed they must be of sufficient guage as to not melt. Dissipating plates must be of sufficient size with sufficient edges to allow complete immediate dispersal.

Of interest other than plastic through hulls, electronics with external antenna and such because electricity travels on the outside of metal structures AL and Fe boats have less concerns and nearly no concern of internal cross strikes of significance. For reasons not fully understood catamarans have twice the risk than monohulls. Florida by far and away leads the nation in boat strikes.

Above is my limited understanding. The above is supported by known science. There’s good evidence current mitigation systems work. Those bouquet of wires at the mast head that hope to rid the boat of charge do little or nothing to prevent strikes. As with anything much is known and much to further know.

Had the experience of spending a week surrounded by strikes and sheet lightning. Our usual path from Antigua to Newport went south of Bermuda but our weather router diverted us to a couple of hundred miles north of the Bahamas as the east coast and Gulf Stream was occluded by a stationary front. Great light show but was glad I didn’t have a carbon mast. Just old school AL. Left the AIS (used the spare hockey puck on the cockpit rail) and SSB connected but tried to get rid of other antennas. Had crew stay inside the boat except when absolutely necessary. Portable or easily disconnected electronics went in the stove as it serves as a fair faraday box. And prayed. We lucked out. Heard other grp boats in the region didn’t fare as well. If I primarily boated off the east coast of Florida I would further educate myself above the current science of marine lightning and mitigation. Would follow as much of TE-4 as possible.

 

[Nepidae]

Lightening

I haven't had lightening damage but did experience hurricane Ian last year in FL.

I also have BoatUS/GEICO and they said they were going to put me back to where I was before the storm. They did.

New hardtop, 3 $1K solar panels, 6 AGM batteries, labor, labor and more labor plus some minor incidentals. Later when I tried to reinflate the dinghy they included that.

I've said this before, search for the cheapest insurance costs then try and get payments for what you lost. I don't think that I pay much more than most and never had to argue. They paid the quotes.

The only issue I have with them is that I tried to increase my coverage after a survey and they wouldn't budge over what I already have. Will try again after all the new stuff is added.

 

[Comodave]

We had Boat/US and then Geico for over 40 years. But on our current boat I did over $60K in hard additions and they wouldn’t increase the coverage. In fact they said I was over insured. They only use BUC or NADA if the boat is in them and mine was. I asked if they used soldboats.com, they said only if the boat isn’t in the book. So they ignore the most current sales prices and use old book data. I called Peter at Novamar. Within minutes he had me quotes with Chubb and Markel that actually covered a bit more than I asked Geico to do. Got better coverage and the price was similar to Geico. Guess where my insurance is now…

 

[OldDan1943]

Anyone had experience with handheld lightning detector?

 

[Iggy]

Good luck with it!!

Hoping the best for you!

 

[PM]

Boat U.S insures a LOT of boats and should be experts, let us know how it washes out.

pete

 

[hmason]

Anyone had experience with handheld lightning detector?

Give Ben Franklin a call; he has a device like that.

 

[High Wire]

Anyone had experience with handheld lightning detector?

Try the WeatherBug app. It has lightning detection map for free that updates every minute.

 

[jleonard]

give ben franklin a call; he has a device like that.

lol

 

[DDW]

Anyone had experience with handheld lightning detector?

Is that a 1 iron held overhead? Lee Travino said that was the best way to avoid lightening, "because even God can't hit a 1 iron".

 

[trihartsfield]

Anyone had experience with handheld lightning detector?

I wonder how accurate they are?

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-02020-Portable-Lightning-Detector/dp/B00EO1H3X8

 

[hmason]

Most weather apps contain a lightning alert function. The big question is what to do about it. Here in southeast FL, lightning alerts occur on an almost daily basis.

 

[Blissboat]

Very sorry you're having that experience, Howard. Just awful luck for the Lucky Lucky! Hope the adjustor is as cooperative as the surveyor.

 

[OldDan1943]

Is that a 1 iron held overhead? Lee Travino said that was the best way to avoid lightening, "because even God can't hit a 1 iron".

That was also a line in Caddy Shack. LOL