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Author Topic:   Whalers and Lightning

diveorfish posted 08-19-2005 09:19 PM ET (US)
I was in Lake Tahoe, for the first time, this past weekend and got caught in my first thunder storm. I managed to outrun some of the rain in whitecap seas but I saw about 3 lightning strikes on the shore less than 4 miles away. I’ve been told that boating and lightning are a very bad combination so I was a bit nervous. I really don’t know if I was in real danger or not. Aside from the lightening though, the lake was really rough, windy and rainy. It was real Whaler weather. Even though I got soaked and tossed, it was an E ticket ride back to shore and a lot of fun.
I mentioned this to someone and they said that they attach long jumper cables to their top run them into the water so if they are hit by lightning it, taking the path of least resistance, will go down the cables and not through them. Does this make sense?
What are you suppose to do you if you were caught in a thunderstorm?

myakka posted 08-19-2005 09:39 PM ET (US)
If you see lightning, seek shelter. We just lost two roofers to a lightning strike yesterday in SW Florida.
Buckda posted 08-19-2005 09:54 PM ET (US)
This is an important topic. It sounds cliche, but you should do a search on this topic, as there was an excellent thread a little over a year ago - perhaps more, where lightning supression/channeling systems were discussed at length.
SOrry I can't be more help right now.
Dave
Marlin posted 08-19-2005 10:32 PM ET (US)
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010375.html , for one.
Peter posted 08-19-2005 11:13 PM ET (US)
About 3pm in the afternoon last Sunday we had the 27 anchored about 1/2 mile offshore amongst about 20 other boats. We were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the cool (84 degree) 10 or 15 MPH sea breeze instead of the 93+ degree temp and high humidity producting a swealtering heat index in excess of 115 just a mile or two in land.
We could see the sky to the NW about 3 to 4 miles inland was darkening as severe thunderstorms were developing per the forecast. Thunder could be heard far in the distance but no lightning could be seen and the sky was still somewhat clear overhead although we could see that eventually the storms would come our way although there were predominantly still moving towards the East. I figured we had at least a good 20 to 30 minutes more time on the water before having to pull anchor and get back to our slip that was less than 2 miles away.
Not shortly after having that thought, I started hearing a very unusual clicking/crackling sound coming from what seemed like my 8 foot fiberglass Shakespeare Galaxy antenna mounted on the top of my radar arch (tip of the antenna is about 15 feet off the surface of the water). Recalling in the back of my mind that I had read about such things indicating the possibility of a lightning strike in the area, we immediately pulled anchor and left the scene. A few other boats pulled anchor about the same time we did and I wonder whether their antennae were buzzing as well. In any case, we made it to the slip just a short 2 miles away unscathed.
Next time .... we go in when we hear thunder.
Binkie posted 08-19-2005 11:19 PM ET (US)
Sorry to hear about the two roofers in Ft.Myers. Living in Florida, the lightning capital of the country, you learn to live with daily summer thunder storms, and try to stay clear of them if possible. When on the water, sometimes it is hard to do. I would just take my antennas down, and my bimini top, unplug my radios, hunker down, and cross my fingers. I think the most dangerous time is before the rain begins to fall. Probably that`s when the roofers were hit, as I`m sure no one would work on a roof during a thunderstorm. My friends son was killed years ago during football practice in Cape Coral. Lightning hit the blocking sled the same time he did. It wasn`t raining yet. One day I was fishing a couple of miles off Sanibel Island and I saw a storm approching and coming in my direction. I decided to move to another fishing spot on the other side of the island and fish near a bridge about 6 miles away. When I got there I saw an ambulance on the bridge with a group of bicycles around, and I assumed a bicyclist was hit by a car. The next day I read in the paper, a women was hit by lightning on her bicyle, as she crossed the bridge. The storm never came within 5 miles of this bridge, and the sun was always shining. Its called a "bolt from the blue". You do what you can to stay safe, but sometimes its the luck of the draw.
Also don`t swim in saltwater,we also lead the country in shark attacks, don`t swim in freshwater, same with alligators, and be carful on our roads, (NY drivers).
I don`t know why I live here, the West Texas desert country looks better al the time.
CFCAJUN posted 08-19-2005 11:28 PM ET (US)
Binkie,
The grass seems always greener...
I hate lightening. I posted my fears in the previous lightening post. My dad told me as a teen he was watching a storm and this bird was flying by. Kazaam! Lightening hit that bird and fried feathers was all that was flying.
I am in NE Texas and we have nice lakes, but the allure of living near the beach is too strong. We would love to be living on the coast.
It hasn't rained here in a month, it is so arid that our clothes dry on the line in less than an hour. My one day on the lake was nice, but oh that Gulf salt water. I miss it so badly.
I think Jimmy Buffett keeps me going up here, thinking back on all my good times on the coast.
When I was in New Orleans about to move, we got violent weather daily. Lightening was striking all around my house. On the final days I unplugged everything and sat it out in my stairwell. I hate lightening.
But, it's what we endure to live in our coastal paradise. So, we do the best we can and wear our white shrimp boots for a reason.
;-)

highspeed_jd posted 08-19-2005 11:42 PM ET (US)
Hey Jamie, try some Larry Joe Taylor. He's originally from Stephenville, just down the road from you. He's what keeps me goin'.
bigjohn1 posted 08-20-2005 09:38 AM ET (US)
There is a company in Florida which produces and markets lightning protection systems for boats. The link to the company is on my pc at work so I don't have it at the moment but will post it Monday when I am back at work. One very important item I noted when reading about the company is they DO NOT produce a system for smaller open boats. Their reasoning was that it is almost impossible to make a smaller open boat "lightning safe".
About the jumper cables dangling in the water...I'm sure they are better than nothing but a major shortfall of that idea is that all you have actually contacting the water is the insulated pliers with a very small copper contact patch on both jaws. The major question would be are those little "pliers" enough of a conductor to channel all of the lighning strike's energy straight to the water WITHOUT allowing sideflash.
As a point of comparison, we use very tall mobile cranes here in Guam to offload explosives from ships. When they are operated pierside for these evolutions, they have two 100' grounding cables with one end attached to the body of the crane and the other attached to a 12"x18" copper plate. The ends with the copper plates are dropped into the water to a depth of 10'.
I am no grounding and lightning "expert" but have tested and inspected lightning protection systems for almost 30 years. I will be attending both the electrical safety and lightning protection schools at the Defense Ammunition Center in McCallister, OK in the coming months. I'm sure I will be exposed to a great deal of material that deals with this and hopefully, can shed more light on all of this in the future.
brkenner posted 08-20-2005 10:06 AM ET (US)
I fish offshore Louisiana and the general consensus is if you are tied up to a oil rig during a thunderstorm, then it is better to be close to the rig than to outrun the storm. The thinking is that there is a cone of protection around the rig equal to half of the height of the rig. This has not been proven, but a boat was hit by lightening a few years ago when it made a run for the harbor. They were only 200 yards from the rig when the bolt hit the vhf antenna. There were no injuries, but the electronics were destroyed.

diveorfish posted 08-20-2005 11:02 AM ET (US)
Thanks for the information everyone. I missed that July thread. It looks like the consensus is that there really isn’t much you can do except not be there when the lightning strikes. That’s the one thing about living in Northern California, except in the mountains, we hardly ever get lightning so I never think about it. So some of you others have to deal with it on a regular basis, scary. Thunderstorms are awesome to watch though if you can keep from getting hit.
Drisney posted 08-20-2005 10:10 PM ET (US)
I was at Tahoe for that storm also Diveorfish. Did you see a V-22 Revenge with blue top set running through the slop? We sit the lightening out at one of the restraunts; in this case it was Sunnyside. The next night when it looked like a repeat, we went to Richardson's. The second night cleared instead but we enjoyed a good meal none the less. Richardson's has live music outside Wed-Sun, very fun. Also check out the boat in only campground on Emerald Bay. Perfect Whaler spot. Dave
Binkie posted 08-20-2005 11:50 PM ET (US)
Funny lightning story.....
A few summers ago my brother in law had a couple of friends (young guys,late 20`s) visit him in SW Florida.They were on vacation from New Zealand. Apparently, they had little or no experience with thunderstorms,in their part of the world, especially the knock down drag out type of thunderstorms that are common here. We all went out to a resturant for dinner, and the worst storm of the summer was waiting for us as we left the resturant. It was raining too hard to make a run to my Bronko, so we waited in the enterance of the resturant for it to pass. It seems like the lightning was everywhare, and the thunder was loud and continuous.The New Zealanders eyes got real wide, and with every lightning strike one of them would say, "oh my God, another bloke has gotton it". The rain let up a little, and I made a run for my Bronko. and drove to the enterance to pick them, and my brother in law up, well, he had to push them into the truck, and as we drove home, with the lightning crashing all around us, one of them cried out, "were in a metal box and were all going to be killed." The funniest part was when we pulled into the driveway and made a run for the house, a bolt struck fairly close, and the thunder cracked at the same time, one of his guests dove under a bush. They were really shaken by the time we got into the house, and then we lost power. As we all sat in the dark with only the illumination from the lightning, lighting our faces, I could see that they couldn`t have been more terrorized, if we were being bombed. Needless to say they never retuned to Florida.
diveorfish posted 08-21-2005 02:29 AM ET (US)
Drisney: It was my first boat trip to Tahoe. We went up Friday (8/12) and stayed through Tuesday. We were at Tahoe Keys in a condo that had a boat slip. I wish I had seen you. I saw only two other Whalers there the whole time. An Outrage looks very out of place in Tahoe. We did eat at Camp Richardson as well as Sunnyside during the course of out stay.
The day of the Storm we went from the Keys to Zephyr Cove and were swimming on the beach. The weather was great. We went to the Zephyr Cove Lodge restaurant and had lunch. After lunch we went back to the beach and the weather had completely changed. It got cloudy and windy and waves started building. We had the boat moored to a buoy and the waves got so bad that the boat was pitching wildly. We had planned to leave that day so it was important to get back to the Keys. By now it was too rough for my 2.5-year-old son so I sent my wife and him back to the Keys in a cab and I took off in the boat. The boat ride back was a little rough but not too bad.
By the time I got to the boat ramp the rain was coming down in buckets and I was soaked and getting cold. I caught up with my wife and son who were also beginning to get cold because we were all dressed for hot weather. My trailer was parked on the street and a car parked right in front of it, which kept me from being able to hook up. We didn’t know what to do, it was still raining very hard so we said the heck with it and stayed an extra day. Fortunately, the place we stayed at was still available so we were able to park the boat and get a hot shower to warm up.
bigjohn1 posted 08-22-2005 07:22 PM ET (US)
Check the following link for more info on an LPS system for boats - www.marinelightning.com
2manyboats posted 08-22-2005 09:59 PM ET (US)
The jumper cables in the water are not to direct the strike to the water but to dissipate the build up of the charge that leads to a strike.
The set we use on our trawler have the clamps removed on one end and a 10 inch long ss pipe nipple welded to the end of the cable, this is clamped to the rigging of our mast.
17 bodega posted 08-22-2005 10:37 PM ET (US)

Before buying a Boston Whaler I used to spend all my spare time in the mountains. Lake Tahoe and vicinity can change faster than you can say boo. In Yosemite, lightning strikes in every month of the year, and often with little warning. I am deathly afraid of lightning, and have an incredible paranoia streak in this area.
When you really break it down, there is no safe place on earth... Every geographical area has natural risks.
bigjohn1 posted 08-23-2005 12:24 AM ET (US)
2manyboats, I understand your thoughts on the purpose of the jumper cables but this assumes that dissipating a static charge which proceeds a lightning strike will help prevent a strike. Can you go into some detail on what standard or concept of lightning protection this is based upon? The national standard on lightning protection is NFPA 780. Admitedly, its purpose is for building lightning protection but the basic principles will also apply to boats. Here is one of many links to the 780:
http://www.lightningmike.com/nfpa-780.asp
In its most basic form, any lightning protection system must include at least an air terminal (lightning rod), a down conductor or ground wire, and ground conductor. Absent any of these components and you don't have a true LPS. I say this not to be argumentative but to ensure somebody does not take that info and assume they now have a reliable LPS system because they have jumper cables running from the water and bonded to their mast via stainless steel rods. I'm open to new ideas and we can all learn but does this procedure really wash with generally accepted LPS standards and accepted standards of lightning safety? Hopefully, I can learn a new concept I did not know and be safer.
2manyboats posted 08-23-2005 07:53 AM ET (US)
The standard used here is based on thousands of hours of boating along the northern Gulf Coast. In the summer we have almost daily thunderstorms.
For as long as I can remember most all the comercial shrimpers in our area have used the cable ground or some just drag a piece of chain over the side.
When we sailed we always made sure the mast was grounded to the keel bolts.
Now I can't be sure if the cables work or we have just been lucky, but once we we anchored in a small cove at one of the offshore islands in our 25ft Wellcraft with our any grounding and the lightning strike was so close every one anchored around us thought it hit us. I was hokding on to the ungounded bimini top frame and got a shock similar to puttig your finger to a wall plug.
So work or not we will continue to use our cables.

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Author	Topic: Whalers and Lightning
diveorfish	posted 08-19-2005 09:19 PM ET (US) I was in Lake Tahoe, for the first time, this past weekend and got caught in my first thunder storm. I managed to outrun some of the rain in whitecap seas but I saw about 3 lightning strikes on the shore less than 4 miles away. I’ve been told that boating and lightning are a very bad combination so I was a bit nervous. I really don’t know if I was in real danger or not. Aside from the lightening though, the lake was really rough, windy and rainy. It was real Whaler weather. Even though I got soaked and tossed, it was an E ticket ride back to shore and a lot of fun. I mentioned this to someone and they said that they attach long jumper cables to their top run them into the water so if they are hit by lightning it, taking the path of least resistance, will go down the cables and not through them. Does this make sense? What are you suppose to do you if you were caught in a thunderstorm?
myakka	posted 08-19-2005 09:39 PM ET (US) If you see lightning, seek shelter. We just lost two roofers to a lightning strike yesterday in SW Florida.
Buckda	posted 08-19-2005 09:54 PM ET (US) This is an important topic. It sounds cliche, but you should do a search on this topic, as there was an excellent thread a little over a year ago - perhaps more, where lightning supression/channeling systems were discussed at length. SOrry I can't be more help right now. Dave
Marlin	posted 08-19-2005 10:32 PM ET (US) http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010375.html , for one.
Peter	posted 08-19-2005 11:13 PM ET (US) About 3pm in the afternoon last Sunday we had the 27 anchored about 1/2 mile offshore amongst about 20 other boats. We were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the cool (84 degree) 10 or 15 MPH sea breeze instead of the 93+ degree temp and high humidity producting a swealtering heat index in excess of 115 just a mile or two in land. We could see the sky to the NW about 3 to 4 miles inland was darkening as severe thunderstorms were developing per the forecast. Thunder could be heard far in the distance but no lightning could be seen and the sky was still somewhat clear overhead although we could see that eventually the storms would come our way although there were predominantly still moving towards the East. I figured we had at least a good 20 to 30 minutes more time on the water before having to pull anchor and get back to our slip that was less than 2 miles away. Not shortly after having that thought, I started hearing a very unusual clicking/crackling sound coming from what seemed like my 8 foot fiberglass Shakespeare Galaxy antenna mounted on the top of my radar arch (tip of the antenna is about 15 feet off the surface of the water). Recalling in the back of my mind that I had read about such things indicating the possibility of a lightning strike in the area, we immediately pulled anchor and left the scene. A few other boats pulled anchor about the same time we did and I wonder whether their antennae were buzzing as well. In any case, we made it to the slip just a short 2 miles away unscathed. Next time .... we go in when we hear thunder.
Binkie	posted 08-19-2005 11:19 PM ET (US) Sorry to hear about the two roofers in Ft.Myers. Living in Florida, the lightning capital of the country, you learn to live with daily summer thunder storms, and try to stay clear of them if possible. When on the water, sometimes it is hard to do. I would just take my antennas down, and my bimini top, unplug my radios, hunker down, and cross my fingers. I think the most dangerous time is before the rain begins to fall. Probably that`s when the roofers were hit, as I`m sure no one would work on a roof during a thunderstorm. My friends son was killed years ago during football practice in Cape Coral. Lightning hit the blocking sled the same time he did. It wasn`t raining yet. One day I was fishing a couple of miles off Sanibel Island and I saw a storm approching and coming in my direction. I decided to move to another fishing spot on the other side of the island and fish near a bridge about 6 miles away. When I got there I saw an ambulance on the bridge with a group of bicycles around, and I assumed a bicyclist was hit by a car. The next day I read in the paper, a women was hit by lightning on her bicyle, as she crossed the bridge. The storm never came within 5 miles of this bridge, and the sun was always shining. Its called a "bolt from the blue". You do what you can to stay safe, but sometimes its the luck of the draw. Also don`t swim in saltwater,we also lead the country in shark attacks, don`t swim in freshwater, same with alligators, and be carful on our roads, (NY drivers). I don`t know why I live here, the West Texas desert country looks better al the time.
CFCAJUN	posted 08-19-2005 11:28 PM ET (US) Binkie, The grass seems always greener... I hate lightening. I posted my fears in the previous lightening post. My dad told me as a teen he was watching a storm and this bird was flying by. Kazaam! Lightening hit that bird and fried feathers was all that was flying. I am in NE Texas and we have nice lakes, but the allure of living near the beach is too strong. We would love to be living on the coast. It hasn't rained here in a month, it is so arid that our clothes dry on the line in less than an hour. My one day on the lake was nice, but oh that Gulf salt water. I miss it so badly. I think Jimmy Buffett keeps me going up here, thinking back on all my good times on the coast. When I was in New Orleans about to move, we got violent weather daily. Lightening was striking all around my house. On the final days I unplugged everything and sat it out in my stairwell. I hate lightening. But, it's what we endure to live in our coastal paradise. So, we do the best we can and wear our white shrimp boots for a reason. ;-)
highspeed_jd	posted 08-19-2005 11:42 PM ET (US) Hey Jamie, try some Larry Joe Taylor. He's originally from Stephenville, just down the road from you. He's what keeps me goin'.
bigjohn1	posted 08-20-2005 09:38 AM ET (US) There is a company in Florida which produces and markets lightning protection systems for boats. The link to the company is on my pc at work so I don't have it at the moment but will post it Monday when I am back at work. One very important item I noted when reading about the company is they DO NOT produce a system for smaller open boats. Their reasoning was that it is almost impossible to make a smaller open boat "lightning safe". About the jumper cables dangling in the water...I'm sure they are better than nothing but a major shortfall of that idea is that all you have actually contacting the water is the insulated pliers with a very small copper contact patch on both jaws. The major question would be are those little "pliers" enough of a conductor to channel all of the lighning strike's energy straight to the water WITHOUT allowing sideflash. As a point of comparison, we use very tall mobile cranes here in Guam to offload explosives from ships. When they are operated pierside for these evolutions, they have two 100' grounding cables with one end attached to the body of the crane and the other attached to a 12"x18" copper plate. The ends with the copper plates are dropped into the water to a depth of 10'. I am no grounding and lightning "expert" but have tested and inspected lightning protection systems for almost 30 years. I will be attending both the electrical safety and lightning protection schools at the Defense Ammunition Center in McCallister, OK in the coming months. I'm sure I will be exposed to a great deal of material that deals with this and hopefully, can shed more light on all of this in the future.
brkenner	posted 08-20-2005 10:06 AM ET (US) I fish offshore Louisiana and the general consensus is if you are tied up to a oil rig during a thunderstorm, then it is better to be close to the rig than to outrun the storm. The thinking is that there is a cone of protection around the rig equal to half of the height of the rig. This has not been proven, but a boat was hit by lightening a few years ago when it made a run for the harbor. They were only 200 yards from the rig when the bolt hit the vhf antenna. There were no injuries, but the electronics were destroyed.
diveorfish	posted 08-20-2005 11:02 AM ET (US) Thanks for the information everyone. I missed that July thread. It looks like the consensus is that there really isn’t much you can do except not be there when the lightning strikes. That’s the one thing about living in Northern California, except in the mountains, we hardly ever get lightning so I never think about it. So some of you others have to deal with it on a regular basis, scary. Thunderstorms are awesome to watch though if you can keep from getting hit.
Drisney	posted 08-20-2005 10:10 PM ET (US) I was at Tahoe for that storm also Diveorfish. Did you see a V-22 Revenge with blue top set running through the slop? We sit the lightening out at one of the restraunts; in this case it was Sunnyside. The next night when it looked like a repeat, we went to Richardson's. The second night cleared instead but we enjoyed a good meal none the less. Richardson's has live music outside Wed-Sun, very fun. Also check out the boat in only campground on Emerald Bay. Perfect Whaler spot. Dave
Binkie	posted 08-20-2005 11:50 PM ET (US) Funny lightning story..... A few summers ago my brother in law had a couple of friends (young guys,late 20`s) visit him in SW Florida.They were on vacation from New Zealand. Apparently, they had little or no experience with thunderstorms,in their part of the world, especially the knock down drag out type of thunderstorms that are common here. We all went out to a resturant for dinner, and the worst storm of the summer was waiting for us as we left the resturant. It was raining too hard to make a run to my Bronko, so we waited in the enterance of the resturant for it to pass. It seems like the lightning was everywhare, and the thunder was loud and continuous.The New Zealanders eyes got real wide, and with every lightning strike one of them would say, "oh my God, another bloke has gotton it". The rain let up a little, and I made a run for my Bronko. and drove to the enterance to pick them, and my brother in law up, well, he had to push them into the truck, and as we drove home, with the lightning crashing all around us, one of them cried out, "were in a metal box and were all going to be killed." The funniest part was when we pulled into the driveway and made a run for the house, a bolt struck fairly close, and the thunder cracked at the same time, one of his guests dove under a bush. They were really shaken by the time we got into the house, and then we lost power. As we all sat in the dark with only the illumination from the lightning, lighting our faces, I could see that they couldn`t have been more terrorized, if we were being bombed. Needless to say they never retuned to Florida.
diveorfish	posted 08-21-2005 02:29 AM ET (US) Drisney: It was my first boat trip to Tahoe. We went up Friday (8/12) and stayed through Tuesday. We were at Tahoe Keys in a condo that had a boat slip. I wish I had seen you. I saw only two other Whalers there the whole time. An Outrage looks very out of place in Tahoe. We did eat at Camp Richardson as well as Sunnyside during the course of out stay. The day of the Storm we went from the Keys to Zephyr Cove and were swimming on the beach. The weather was great. We went to the Zephyr Cove Lodge restaurant and had lunch. After lunch we went back to the beach and the weather had completely changed. It got cloudy and windy and waves started building. We had the boat moored to a buoy and the waves got so bad that the boat was pitching wildly. We had planned to leave that day so it was important to get back to the Keys. By now it was too rough for my 2.5-year-old son so I sent my wife and him back to the Keys in a cab and I took off in the boat. The boat ride back was a little rough but not too bad. By the time I got to the boat ramp the rain was coming down in buckets and I was soaked and getting cold. I caught up with my wife and son who were also beginning to get cold because we were all dressed for hot weather. My trailer was parked on the street and a car parked right in front of it, which kept me from being able to hook up. We didn’t know what to do, it was still raining very hard so we said the heck with it and stayed an extra day. Fortunately, the place we stayed at was still available so we were able to park the boat and get a hot shower to warm up.
bigjohn1	posted 08-22-2005 07:22 PM ET (US) Check the following link for more info on an LPS system for boats - www.marinelightning.com
2manyboats	posted 08-22-2005 09:59 PM ET (US) The jumper cables in the water are not to direct the strike to the water but to dissipate the build up of the charge that leads to a strike. The set we use on our trawler have the clamps removed on one end and a 10 inch long ss pipe nipple welded to the end of the cable, this is clamped to the rigging of our mast.
17 bodega	posted 08-22-2005 10:37 PM ET (US) Before buying a Boston Whaler I used to spend all my spare time in the mountains. Lake Tahoe and vicinity can change faster than you can say boo. In Yosemite, lightning strikes in every month of the year, and often with little warning. I am deathly afraid of lightning, and have an incredible paranoia streak in this area. When you really break it down, there is no safe place on earth... Every geographical area has natural risks.
bigjohn1	posted 08-23-2005 12:24 AM ET (US) 2manyboats, I understand your thoughts on the purpose of the jumper cables but this assumes that dissipating a static charge which proceeds a lightning strike will help prevent a strike. Can you go into some detail on what standard or concept of lightning protection this is based upon? The national standard on lightning protection is NFPA 780. Admitedly, its purpose is for building lightning protection but the basic principles will also apply to boats. Here is one of many links to the 780: http://www.lightningmike.com/nfpa-780.asp In its most basic form, any lightning protection system must include at least an air terminal (lightning rod), a down conductor or ground wire, and ground conductor. Absent any of these components and you don't have a true LPS. I say this not to be argumentative but to ensure somebody does not take that info and assume they now have a reliable LPS system because they have jumper cables running from the water and bonded to their mast via stainless steel rods. I'm open to new ideas and we can all learn but does this procedure really wash with generally accepted LPS standards and accepted standards of lightning safety? Hopefully, I can learn a new concept I did not know and be safer.
2manyboats	posted 08-23-2005 07:53 AM ET (US) The standard used here is based on thousands of hours of boating along the northern Gulf Coast. In the summer we have almost daily thunderstorms. For as long as I can remember most all the comercial shrimpers in our area have used the cable ground or some just drag a piece of chain over the side. When we sailed we always made sure the mast was grounded to the keel bolts. Now I can't be sure if the cables work or we have just been lucky, but once we we anchored in a small cove at one of the offshore islands in our 25ft Wellcraft with our any grounding and the lightning strike was so close every one anchored around us thought it hit us. I was hokding on to the ungounded bimini top frame and got a shock similar to puttig your finger to a wall plug. So work or not we will continue to use our cables.