Comments on: What would happen if a bolt of lighting struck a boat in open water?

By: No_Spam

No_Spam — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:17:08 +0000

Bitchy,
A lot to agree with in Boatin in VA. We lived aboard our 38′ sail boat on the East Coast and Bahamas, and saw plenty of lightning storms, and were usually aboard. We also experienced being hit with 1 water spout, and spent one hurricane aboard (the boat saw a total of 5 hurricanes).
As we had a 38′ mast (lightning rod), and plenty of rigging, also conductive, we had a ground plate for our electronics and radio, our mast and rigging were grounded to the keel. I do not believe that we ever directly struck by lightning, but had several other cruisers with us that some of them were hit. The worst I saw was one mega yacht had all of their electronics fried, and boats on either side had some of theirs cooked also. Our plan was during an electrical storm, stay away from any metal that was directly attached to the mast.
There is several devices that one can attach to the mast head to dissipate static electricity to attempt to avoid being struck, but this is used by generally less than 1/2 of the cruisers we were in touch with.
Further, most all boats I refer to are fiberglass boats that are regularly lived aboard in marinas and crossing the oceans. [who] No_Spam

By: Boatin' in VA!

Boatin' in VA! — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:17:40 +0000

Having been thru a hellacious thunderstorm “once” let me tell you what happened to a 38′ cruiser that was in the same cove as we. This boat took a direct hit by a bolt. There was no visible damage to the vessel at all from the lightening (he was aground though as the 65 mph winds blew him ashore).

As I was helping pull 11 other boats off the shoreline I noticed 6 members of the local fire dept. coming out of the woods and walking the shoreline. The went up to the 38 footer and I heard them ask the owner where the fire was on his vessel. He responded that there was no fire but that lightening had fried anyhting that was electrical on the boat and he wanted them to get him off the shoreline and then towed back in. Can you guess what the reaction was of the fire dept? You got it…they responded with “Are you nuts? If you have no fire and no injuries we’re out of here.” Needless to say they were not happy at all. How’d he get them there? Called 911 on his cell phone and stated his boat had been hit by lightening.

This owner was lucky. Yes, he had to have everything that was electrical replaced but he had no structural damage or personal injury to anyone on the boat. The damage to a boat can be anything from what was described here to loss of the vessel and possible loss of life from lightening.

The best thing anyone can do in a storm is throw out every inch of anchor line, put down your radio antenna, don’t touch anything that’s metal and get to the lowest portion of the ship and stay there until the storm passes. [who] Boatin’ in VA!

By: jtexas

jtexas — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:58:35 +0000

it might just punch a hole in a fiberglass boat.

a metal boat would come through a little better I think, because the boat itself would conduct the electricity to ground (or “earth” if you’re in the UK or Australia or whereever else they say “earth” instead of “ground”), which in this case is water.

if you’re in, say, a pontoon boat with a wooden deck and an aluminum frame shelter, and the shelter frame is connected somehow to the metal pontoons, you might be deafened momentarily, but I don’t think you’d get a shock, long as you weren’t actually touching metal.

your navionics would likely get fried. [who] jtexas

By: Baby

Baby — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:49:12 +0000

it all depends where the lightening hit the boat . if the lightening hit metal and metal is wet it will than transfer to the wood and the boat would burn if lightening hit wood and no metal it my just chock you and no Metal nothing would happened [who] Baby

By: km9cm2e

km9cm2e — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:27:58 +0000

With 100 million volts, lightning can smash a hole through a hull, explode a mast and electrocute passengers in a single flash. [who] km9cm2e

By: kay

kay — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:54:16 +0000

Depends on what kind of boat it is. Big ones have special stuff, yeah. Because they travel far. Like cruise ships, tankers, and cargo ships. Little ones….are smart enough not to go out into bad weather. [who] kay

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:51:11 +0000

if it's a metal boat, like a jon boat. REALLY bad deal. [who] Joe

By: Gabe

Gabe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:34:02 +0000

White squall [who] Gabe

By: Roni

Roni — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:10:16 +0000

Poof………… [who] Roni