Left Shift
Super Anarchist
Ultrasound done on a older damaged CF mast does not produce reliable data. According to the company who was asked to do ultrasound on my mast by the insurance company.
Lightning mitigation systems - South Florida
- Thread starter RLB64
- Start date
"The CMCE-55 home and marine units come with a 100% Performance Guarantee that not only refunds 100% of your purchase in the event of a lightning strike, but it allows you to keep your unit and we will have a professional come to your home to inspect it and make sure it is working properly and replace it, if necessary. You get to keep your money and the CMCE!"
"The CMCE is a variable electric field balancer that constantly draws in both positive and negative ions and sends them to ground BEFORE the cloud to ground strike has a chance to form. The result is a large protected area where lightning will not strike."
"Protect your boat for life for less than the cost of a years slip rental."
This is pure fucking snake oil. If they were so sure of it why wouldn't they offer to pay for my damages? If your boat in Florida has a 1/100 chance of a strike in a year, then they can sell 100 and only have to refund the cost of 1 when it gets struck
Agreed with what you quoted.
We'll be neighbors! I'm the blue boat at the end of cgsc mooring field. Glad your rig will be taller than mine ha
eastern motors
Anarchist
- 738
- 154
DavidYacht
Member
I got involved with a UK build project going to the US East Coast … aly mast. My customer was concerned about lightning protection. What became clear was that no two “experts”, could agree. Heavy duty grounding cable makes sense, with no kinks or bends to ground. Sintered grounding plates are bad news since the explode when the water boils and put a hole in the bottom of your boat. My overall conclusion was don’t have the highest mast in the harbour.
slug zitski
Super Anarchist
Rasputin22
Rasputin22
- 14,124
- 3,668
I used to believe in the 'not having the tallest mast in the harbor' theory until having a strike or discharge while getting towed back into Sarasota at a Stiletto Cat National Championships. Tampa to Ft ************ could be the worst stretch of coast for lightning in the world and our OB motor was really just a fake 'race' engine with no guts in it and we had been protested and lost the day before after someone looked under the engine cover to see nothing but the recoil starter and the lower leg. The guy I raced with loved messing with peoples heads and he would pull the cord repeatedly while cussing about Volvo outboards as if the thing had dies just as we cast off of the docks. He would gratefully accept a tow out to the start line and pull the same stunt after the last race. The Volvo was a tiny thing to start with and weighed about half of what the rest of the fleet used for power and for years there had been grumbling. That was probably why he had gutted the motor since the last time we attended but he didn't think to take the faux motor off the bracket and lock in the hull during the nights. Anyway he was busted and the race committee must have not taken it too seriously because our punishment was to carry an extra case of beer right up against the transom in each hull which would be the 'adjusting weights' but they didn't say that we could try and drink all that beer and jettison (piss) it over the side before the starting gun.
But I digress. The last day of the regatta no one would give us a tow after the last race and one of those classic late afternoon thunderstorms had boiled up over the mainland and suck all of the sea breeze away and we were making little progress toward the big after race party back at the marina. Finally despite our bad karma from the motor incident one of the modified class 30 Stilettos took pity on us (probably because the were out of beer and we still had plenty) came by and took our towline in exchange for a couple of cold 6 packs and we headed in as the lighting started cracking off all around us. I kept watching the big condo/hotel highrise at the marina and hoped we could get within the 60 degree 'cone of protection' that you sometimes see mentioned in old sailing/cruising books about lighting. And I took relief that the longer, wider boat towing us had a mast that was 6' higher than our stock one and I figured that they would get a strike before we would. The guys ahead towing us were in good spirts (having won their class) and polishing off the beer we gave them and I was motioning at them to pick up the pace and pointing at the threatening clouds and strikes but they were just pointing at their silly little bottle brush at the top of their mast! The speed was so slow that the towline was drooping in the water and I wondered that if either of us got struck whether the current could follow the wet line from one boat to another. The owners best buddy had brought his wife along and the day had started out windy so had brought her just for weight on the high side and she was handed the tiller for the tow back. The rest of our crew were standing in the polypro nets forward of the mast and the husband looked back at his wife and told her rudely to stay in the wake of the tow boat just as I felt and sort of heard a sucking sound and my hair stood on end as what I assume to this day was the 'trigger leader' ground to air current which hits the cloud base and sets of the main discharge. I looked at the poor gal who had let out a big yell to see she had dropped the tiller extension into the water and was rubbing and shaking her hands and arms. This all took place in a second or so and then a thunderboomer/strike from directly above went off and we all jumped if we were standing and about messed our hiking shorts. I had gotten a pretty good jolt too and the wife was cussing the foredeck husband out so I knew she would live. The strike must have gotten the attention to the guys on our towboat as the sent to wide open throttle and we all made haste for the marina. Not sure where the big final discharge ended up but it was pretty obvious the leader strike had come up through the aluminum rudder cheek plates and tillers into the hiking stick and then along the wet side decks to the standing rigging then up the mast to the heavens.
This sort of explains what we experienced
But I digress. The last day of the regatta no one would give us a tow after the last race and one of those classic late afternoon thunderstorms had boiled up over the mainland and suck all of the sea breeze away and we were making little progress toward the big after race party back at the marina. Finally despite our bad karma from the motor incident one of the modified class 30 Stilettos took pity on us (probably because the were out of beer and we still had plenty) came by and took our towline in exchange for a couple of cold 6 packs and we headed in as the lighting started cracking off all around us. I kept watching the big condo/hotel highrise at the marina and hoped we could get within the 60 degree 'cone of protection' that you sometimes see mentioned in old sailing/cruising books about lighting. And I took relief that the longer, wider boat towing us had a mast that was 6' higher than our stock one and I figured that they would get a strike before we would. The guys ahead towing us were in good spirts (having won their class) and polishing off the beer we gave them and I was motioning at them to pick up the pace and pointing at the threatening clouds and strikes but they were just pointing at their silly little bottle brush at the top of their mast! The speed was so slow that the towline was drooping in the water and I wondered that if either of us got struck whether the current could follow the wet line from one boat to another. The owners best buddy had brought his wife along and the day had started out windy so had brought her just for weight on the high side and she was handed the tiller for the tow back. The rest of our crew were standing in the polypro nets forward of the mast and the husband looked back at his wife and told her rudely to stay in the wake of the tow boat just as I felt and sort of heard a sucking sound and my hair stood on end as what I assume to this day was the 'trigger leader' ground to air current which hits the cloud base and sets of the main discharge. I looked at the poor gal who had let out a big yell to see she had dropped the tiller extension into the water and was rubbing and shaking her hands and arms. This all took place in a second or so and then a thunderboomer/strike from directly above went off and we all jumped if we were standing and about messed our hiking shorts. I had gotten a pretty good jolt too and the wife was cussing the foredeck husband out so I knew she would live. The strike must have gotten the attention to the guys on our towboat as the sent to wide open throttle and we all made haste for the marina. Not sure where the big final discharge ended up but it was pretty obvious the leader strike had come up through the aluminum rudder cheek plates and tillers into the hiking stick and then along the wet side decks to the standing rigging then up the mast to the heavens.
This sort of explains what we experienced
solosailor
Super Anarchist
Wow.
