Lightning

Best lightning rod you can have is a No.1 Wood tied to the top of your mast............................not even god can hit a one wood.

LOL!!

I understand that lightning is often much less than an inch in diameter! Pretty amazing amount of power in such a small 'package'.

Mark, I think your lightning rod is a tremendous help to those of us boating with you at a safe distance. At least we have a pretty good idea where the lightning will strike.

Last week, I was helping my friend Gene clean his boat when lightning started to move in. I figured I better get home while the getting was still good. I had a 2 mile boat ride home. I made it half-way there (between light 45 and Korth's Pirate's lair) when my radar lit up with rain all around me, but none was hitting the water...yet About 30 seconds later, it was like someone turned in a faucet. The cell was directly overhead me and my canvas was getting a great wash down! Visibility was down to about a mile in heavy rain, but it was no problem as I was just a few turns from home and the winds were still relatively light. There was lightning all around for a short time. Sure wish you were there!!

Lightning last week?? This ain't Florida!

Don't know what the Coot's maker was thinking. Boat and mast are metal, so what's with the lightning rod? (Electricity is one of my worst subjects.)

I think the idea is to provide a SAFE path for the energy to take instead of energizing the entire boat with the electrical jolt. I bet there's a beefy insulator at the masthead and a stout cable to a safe exit point preventing the electrical charge from passing through the mast and hull.

In 30 years of boating in the Prince William Sound I have yet to see lightening or even a thunder storm.

Come to the Florida I-4 area , 1000 strikes a DAY are common.

FlyWright said:

I think the idea is to provide a SAFE path for the energy to take instead of energizing the entire boat with the electrical jolt. I bet there's a beefy insulator at the masthead and a stout cable to a safe exit point preventing the electrical charge from passing through the mast and hull.

Click to expand...

Per the builder, the lightning rod's purpose is to bleed off electrical energy to reduce the likelihood of a lightning strike, not to attract or absorb a strike. There is no insulator: the rod is screwed directly into the metal mast.

That sort of fixture is usually installed to provide a point where corona discharge can occurr and like you wrote "bleed off" energy that might otherwise build up to more destructive levels and damage or interfere with radio frequency devices.

Your spike is the equivalent of the "static wicks" used on aircraft and serves the same purpose.

Your mast is the lightning rod, you are standing in the path to ground.

Makes perfect sense.

There is no insulator: the rod is screwed directly into the metal mast.

Your mast is the lightning rod, you are standing in the path to ground.

Be prepaired for the lightning to come straight down the mast , and exit the boat directly UNDER the mast.

Most L rod setups prefer a copper wire on any shrouds leading overboard to a ground .

Any connections are made with copper nuts and bolts .