Looks like there are a lot of us that are upgrading their masts and wiring this year. I am installing an antennae for the VHF radio also. So I got to thinking about lightning... We have some wicked "indian summer" storms and since I'm the token sailboat in the marina, I think all my fellow dock mates are using me as their lightning protection! So here is my question. Since all the connections are plugged at the hull does it make sence to just unplug the power and VHF connection at the mast when I'm not on board? Should I rig up a piece of temp cable and connect it to the loose end of the hast cables and then dangle it in the water? Or am I over thinking this and just not do anything? Any thoughts on this ? Let me know.
Thanks
Tony
Lightning
You know this has come up a couple times in the past few years I've been on the forum but I never remember a definitive answer. But I have been thinking about it a lot in the last month on my re-wiring project.
Any electrical engineer types please correct or improve on my best guess here. I'm shooting in the dark here with what little, likely flawed knowledge I have.
It seems to me we should approach this like they do in airplanes. Everything is grounded to the airframe and those are wired to flow electricity out to the wing tips and tail to discharge antenna like protrusions.
I'm thinking everything should be grounded to the mast and the mast grounded to my keel pin brackets which is grounded to my 900 lbs steel keel that hangs down in the water. I've got an antenna at the top of my mast that is not hooked to a radio but it is grounded to the mast.
My theory is that if I get struck by lightening, I have provided a path from the tip top of the mast right down through the boat to below the water line. Now if I am wrong then my poor boat will look like it was hit with the biggest shotgun blast ever seen and quickly sink being held afloat only by my Chrysler installed safety foam inside the smoking hull.
Please someone with more knowledge give us a really good and better answer on this one.
Thanks
Alan
Any electrical engineer types please correct or improve on my best guess here. I'm shooting in the dark here with what little, likely flawed knowledge I have.
It seems to me we should approach this like they do in airplanes. Everything is grounded to the airframe and those are wired to flow electricity out to the wing tips and tail to discharge antenna like protrusions.
I'm thinking everything should be grounded to the mast and the mast grounded to my keel pin brackets which is grounded to my 900 lbs steel keel that hangs down in the water. I've got an antenna at the top of my mast that is not hooked to a radio but it is grounded to the mast.
My theory is that if I get struck by lightening, I have provided a path from the tip top of the mast right down through the boat to below the water line. Now if I am wrong then my poor boat will look like it was hit with the biggest shotgun blast ever seen and quickly sink being held afloat only by my Chrysler installed safety foam inside the smoking hull.
Please someone with more knowledge give us a really good and better answer on this one.
Thanks
Alan
It's a good life on the
Honu, 1976 C-22
My Chrysler Sailing Photos: http://s1297.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... ry/Sailing
Honu, 1976 C-22
My Chrysler Sailing Photos: http://s1297.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... ry/Sailing
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EmergencyExit
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thepartydog
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EE,
I didn't know you were in the broadcast biz, I worked at 108 in PC and 98.5 in FWB (transmitter in Andalusia) in the Late 80's and early 90's.
I have seen the disapators specifically for sailboats. I don't remember where, but It could have been online at west marine. Yup, here it is http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=10616. I also do some part time computer/networking consulting for these guys http://www.surgesuppression.com/, and they'd probably have an overpriced (for a small sailboat's budget) solution that would be absolutely bullet proof. Interesting company, they custom manufacture almost all of their solutions for each project. Commercial building protection, theme park rides, commercial equipment, medical equipment, pretty much any sensitive equipment, they can make protection for it at the "breaker box" level. Maybe I should get them to create a marine model for me and go into the surge suppression business for boaters.....
I didn't know you were in the broadcast biz, I worked at 108 in PC and 98.5 in FWB (transmitter in Andalusia) in the Late 80's and early 90's.
I have seen the disapators specifically for sailboats. I don't remember where, but It could have been online at west marine. Yup, here it is http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=10616. I also do some part time computer/networking consulting for these guys http://www.surgesuppression.com/, and they'd probably have an overpriced (for a small sailboat's budget) solution that would be absolutely bullet proof. Interesting company, they custom manufacture almost all of their solutions for each project. Commercial building protection, theme park rides, commercial equipment, medical equipment, pretty much any sensitive equipment, they can make protection for it at the "breaker box" level. Maybe I should get them to create a marine model for me and go into the surge suppression business for boaters.....
Darin
"Ya Never Know"
1980 C26
"Ya Never Know"
1980 C26
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EmergencyExit
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2954
- Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:02 pm
- Location: Mississippi Gulf Coast