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Sun, December 22 2024, 01:14 [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ]

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Date Posted: - Friday - 04/29/11 - 11:40am
Author: Paul - M31 #106, NJ
Subject: Lightning
In reply to: Nicholas 's message, "Lightening Protection for wood masted sail boat" on - Sunday - 04/24/11 - 2:16pm

My experience is that I have never owned a boat that had it - and I have never had a direct (or any) hit that I could find evidence of. My Mariner does not have protection and nothing in the boat is even "grounded" to keel or through-hull.

My opinion is that any benefit a lightning protection system offers is immediately compromised by the fact that the sticks are now "advertising" a path to ground and that whatever system is put on, it better be able to handle the traffic.

From a passing storm's perspective, our masts and shrouds are just vertical paths of a (relatively) few feet and the non-grounded delta potential between the top and bottom of these vertical paths is miniscule (again, relatively speaking). Getting struck is almost no more likely than if the sticks were horizontal...

Providing a solid ground to water from the bottom of the mast and then adding a little tickler on top of the mast, just seems couterintuitive to trying to avoid a lighning strike

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Replies:

[> [> Potential -- gitano, - Monday - 05/ 2/11 - 1:51pm

Actually, grounding the masts brings them down to the same potential as the ocean surface. It does NOT broadcast a beacon to be hit, but rather makes is just a likely as the ocean surface to be hit, which is much less a chance than an ungrounded mast. There is a wealth of information on the internets - here is one such location http://www.discoverboating.com/resources/article.aspx?id=422


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[> [> [> Lightning -- paul M31 #106, NJ, - Tuesday - 05/ 3/11 - 11:00am

If the grounded mast acquires the same potential as the ocean, which I agree happens on a grounded mast, isn't this potential then lifted up 35 ft or more into the air above that ocean, while offering a path?

I maintain that an ungrounded mast maintains it's own potential, independent from water or sky. It's ability to accept or guide a current or accept and store a voltage is miniscule.


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[> [> [> [> Lightning and sailboats -- gitano, - Friday - 05/ 6/11 - 3:32pm

Hi Paul, Interesting thought. You should read this article. Lightning does not care whether a mast is grounded or not. It will hit either one with the same statistical frequency. By grounding the mast you provide a path for the strike, once the positive and negative branches connect, to ground without using other conductors on its way to ground through a boat. If the boat isn't grounded, it will likely blow a hole in the hull, or through any other thing in its path, like the crew.
Best regards,
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:H2eEyc7AbPYJ:edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/SG/SG07100.pdf+lightning+grounding+a+sailboat&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj8u6uv0Wtsl4GyKezwy9Gv-cGvVlkQ_DGDm5EylurTaTud9LLTtP7Mbi2FXV845Yqc5BWIFIDRpXNTMzwaRvQnlNYuCAcNBV6eqBS8X52wjsiMCeICWUE6mx8OtI4mWuwtzqJK&sig=AHIEtbRALbsnzIFURWJfeum_5NMcVrw9nw


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