Before reading on, please pause for a moment to take this week’s survey so we can share the results with the Cruising Compass family.
Do you have radar on your cruising boat?
Thanks to all who filled out last week’s long survey on lightning protection for sailboats. Of those who answered , 64% have some sort of lightning protection. The most popular forms of lightning protection are: 1. well grounded electrical system; 2. masthead dissipater; 3. dyna plates on the hull attached to the grounding system; and, 4. surge protectors in cabling. Regarding strikes, 9% say they have been hit by lightning and of those 56% say their lightning protection devices did not work. Asked to recommend lightning protection gear and procedures, readers favor masthead dissipaters, well bonded and grounded electrical systems, the addition of dyna plates to the hull and the ability to put electronics in a microwave or Faraday cage. The consensus seem to be that lightning protection devices and systems work about 50% of the time.
