Lightning strikes

[jmauld]

We had lightning hit our dock and damage three boats. One taking extensive damage to every thing electrical except for the stereo. Even the Engine computers were damaged.

We can’t tell if the lightning hit a boat directly or hit the dock and travelled to the boats.

Either way, have any of you installed a surge suppressor to limit surges coming from the dock or other boats?

 

[techmitch]

@ttmott

 

[Pirate Lady]

Got sailboats on that pier? Sailboats attract lightning.

 

[jmauld]

Sailboats everywhere. Need to ban those things

 

[dtfeld]

We had a lightning strike hit a couple trees 50' up on shore. The boat nearest took about 8-10k is damage. I'm furthest away 40 slips down the way but lost an inverter, my radar and several solenoids. Nobody im aware of in between had any damage.

The only thing I can think is the electricity traveled on the steel anchor wires to reach me.

 

[bahamabreisus]

Problem is, these strikes do damage that doesn't show up for weeks. When did this happen.

 

[jmauld]

Problem is, these strikes do damage that doesn't show up for weeks. When did this happen.

June 23

 

[ttmott]

Lightning struck the mast of the sailboat right next to me. It was a big strike - the folks in the boat behind me saw the strike and said it showered sparks all over my boat.
They called me and said all of the bridge lights were on so I went down to the boat.
The bridge light dimmers were not functioning and the deeper I looked into things the more I found things messed up - Smartcraft, Engine Data, Air Conditioning, Radar, MFD's, GPS, solon lightining, generator data, and on and on. I turned the battery banks off and disconnected the shorepower.
The next morning I called my Insurance Rep to initiate a claim and to bring the right 3rd parties on the boat to wring it out. I had the Cummins Rep, a couple of electrical/electronics companies, the Fire Protection company, and my mechanic on the boat for a couple of days going through all of the systems. Every one of them did a comprehensive write up. After that the Insurance company sent their adjuster to the boat and I had all of the specialists there also so they could all go over the boat. The damage was quite extensive.
The interesting thing is there was no visible location where the high voltage entered the boat. We surmised it entered the boat through the bonding system and snaked all through the electrical. Lightening strikes are insidious.
The damage to the systems was extensive. They ended up replacing just about everything electrical on the boat including wiring harnesses. The only things not replaced were the Water Heater, Isolation Transformer, and Refrigerators. One A/C unit seemed not affected but it ended up crapping the bed in less than a month later. In excess of $100K in damage - At this point, from an electrical aspect, the boat is new.
It was hit and miss on the boats around us but many had damage. I think mine was the most extensive however.

So, what is different to help avoid a repeat? Not a lot. I put Opto Isolators to divide up the NMEA 2000 system and ran larger bonding conductors to the bigger through-hulls. I though about installing a large bonding plate on the hull but didn't know how that would affect the bonding/corrosion system. I do think isolation transformers go a long way to minimize surges from the shorepower system. The bottom line is if there is a significant lightening strike there isn't much one can do to channel that kind of voltage/current away from the boat's systems.

As I write this we have a big lightening storm coming through and I just got a VRM notification the boat has lost comm with the WIFI at the marina. That means the camera system is also down..... Looks like I'll take a run to the marina here in a few....
You are receiving this alarm notification because the VRM database has not received new data from this site since 2023-07-13 19:06:21 America/New_York. Last log received: 40.6 minutes ago
Logging interval: 15 minutes
Timeout setting for this alarm: 5.0 minutes
Last data site time: 2023-07-13 19:06:21 America/New_York
Last data UTC time: 2023-07-13 23:06:21 UTC
Current site time: 2023-07-13 19:47:02 America/New_York
Current UTC time: 2023-07-13 23:47:02 UTC

 

[blaster]

Got sailboats on that pier? Sailboats attract lightning.

Among other things.

 

[hottoddie]

There have been cases where a lightning strike has caused hull delamination and totaled the boat and in some cases the boats have sunk.

 

[mrsrobinson]

Geez, I had no idea. I remember lightning rods on the roofs of houses when I grew up.