I wrote a piece about lightning and steel boats and sent it off to the usual suspect to forward to you. Now he claims that there was a lightning strike on the email system and my perfectly penned piece was snatched into oblivion and that I will have to wrack my brain to recreate it, which may take another bolt out of the bloo to do. Sowbe it. The diesel duck 462 hull and cabin sides and tops are steel, except for the pilothouse which is constructed of fiberglass and plywood, which does not make a good conductor. This top is bolted on with SS round head bolts about 3/8", one washer placed under the head and there is another washer underneath the nut where the bolt is snugged up against the steel tab attached to the cabin side. The bolts are bedded in 5200 and it will take an act of god to part the cabin top from the cabin sides. There is a steel cross member about half way from the front to back for additional reinforcement. Hull #1 and most of the hulls being built if they have a mast and sails have the mast positioned just forward of the back end of the pilothouse cabin. This position leads to a sail rig which not completely balanced in that the boat will tend to have "weather helm", a tendency to round up into the wind in a strong gust. This is an intended feature which means that less attention has to be paid to the sails while they are up as in a gust that might otherwise knock the boat down, it will just tend to round up into the wind and spill it rather than be knocked over. In any event this placement makes it easy to ground the base of the mast to the cabin wall where any lightning strike will be carried in a very short path directly to the water surrounding the boat. The mast is sitting on a SS pad and the pad is sitting on a plain steel strap which is welded to the back cabin wall. Hulll #2 will have a balanced rig which will place the mast about 2 feet aft of the forward end of the pilothouse roof. Some way of grounding the mast will be found, but the method should use as few sharp bends as possible. If a lightning strike should jump from the base of the mast to some grounded part of the hull, there could be someone in the way at the time. This sort of "side flash" could kill anyone in it's way. The masts are aluminum and the best way to provide lightning protection is to use the mast itself as the grounding path. Place the rod at the top, attach it to the top and run a strap from the base of the mast to the nearby metal cabin. It is redundant and is probably not necessary or even desirable to use a separate wire to take the charge to the base of the mast. Copper mesh and or small diameter wire is not suitable for a lightning ground path. The biggest piece of steel, aluminum copper that you can stomach using is the best. By the way, this lightning business is still a bit of a "black art" and it's only recently that the strategy for lightning protection of boats has begun to make any sense, at least that is my take on the situation. Regards, Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon.

Thanks so much Mike for sharing your experience and expertise with us newbies... with that in mind, could you explain more completely your statement below about the sail rig (i.e. 'tend to round up...etc.') I'm trying to get my brain around it and have no sailing experience for the context. Thanks, Mike This position leads to a sail rig which not completely balanced in that the boat will tend to have "weather helm", a tendency to round up into the wind in a strong gust. This is an intended feature which means that less attention has to be paid to the sails while they are up as in a gust that might otherwise knock the boat down, it will just tend to round up into the wind and spill it rather than be knocked over._______________________________________________ > Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List >