deedly
Senior Member
After reading the scariest stories, seems like lightning is a common threat to all us fishermen. I wouild like to pass on a little info that I learned after my encounter with some really bad lightning. You can protect your boat and occupants by using a ground plate on the boat and bonding all electornics, engine, and outriggers to the plate. If this is done, the outriggers become lightning rods that will send any lightning through the ground plate and nowhere else. A outrigger that is 15 feet high will provide lightning protection for the vessel that is equivilant to a circle with a 30 foot diameter. A good example is a sail boat. The mast is 40 feet tall and bonded to a ground plate, it provides a safety zone of an 80 ft circle. As long as the sailboat is shorter than 8o ft, the boat lays entirely in the safety zone. Basically by bonding the major metal items and eletronics to a ground plate creates a "Faraday Cage" which is like an umbrella for lightning. A farady cage consist of a conductive mesh or membrane surrounding a volume of space. The interior of the space "faraday cage" is immune to lightning strikes because the conductivity of the cage forces the potential energy of the interior to be uniform. Without a difference in the potential energy across the space, a person inside the interior of the cage cannot get shocked. Some more examples of a faraday cage would be automobiles, airplanes, tower cranes, navy ships. These things get struck all the time without injury to the people inside. People think that their car is safe because of the rubber tires. It is not because of the rubber it is because of physics. Lighting can close a gap of miles, it could certainly jump a few inches of rubber. To research more search for Michael Faraday, and or lightning protection for boats. This book also has info " Boatowners's Illustrated Handbook of Wiring" by Charlie Wing