Hit by lightening?

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dc9loser

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Hey, lots of lightening down here. I've been out in many times in fiberglass boats...Just wondering: has anyone actually heard of a tin boat getting hit by lightening?

I mean metal boat, out on the water, both good conductors of electric current......
 
I used to get caught in really nasty storms on Lake Okeechobee while I was on an airboat. All of our airboats were aluminum, and sometimes we would be miles from anything resembling shore. It is a truly frightening experience and one I never wish to repeat. Last year, I know that 2 folks were killed by lightning on that lake. One was on an aluminum hull bass boat and took a direct hit. It blew the arms clean off of his body. I'm not sure about the other, but he definitely died too.

If I'm on the water and I see lightning, I'm headed in. If I'm on the water and lightning is hitting all around me, I head straight for dry ground or a bridge.
 
Just read this today

quote
From 2006 to 2012, 238 people died after being struck by lightning in the country — 82 percent of them male. Of the total number of victims, 152 were taking part in leisure activities, according to new findings from the National Weather Service .

Fishing topped the list with 26 lightning deaths, followed by camping with 15 deaths, boating with 14, soccer with 12 and golf with eight, NWS officials said.
unquote

Tim

https://news.yahoo.com/fishing-tops-us-list-lighting-death-activities-201359058.html
 
A couple of years ago there was a picture make it's way around the south of a tin boat that had been struck by lightning. It looked like someone had blown a hole in it with a buck shoot. Both the men in the boat were killed.
 
Surprisingly, lightning doesn't leave a massive hole. Lightning bolts hit aircraft all the time. You really have to look to be able to see where they hit. They also say that you are more likely to be struck by lightning if you have been struck before.
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=320103#p320103 said:
wingsnhammers » Today, 02:35[/url]"]Surprisingly, lightning doesn't leave a massive hole. Lightning bolts hit aircraft all the time. You really have to look to be able to see where they hit. They also say that you are more likely to be struck by lightning if you have been struck before.


The difference is that the aircraft, unlike the boater, camper, golfer, or fisherman, is NOT grounded. Kinda like the way birds and squirrels can hang out on high voltage power lines without being electrocuted, unless they touch something that is grounded.

When the lighting hits the aircraft fuselage, the current is harmlessly spread out, it's like a Faraday Cage, much the same way it reacts when it hits a vehicle.
 
I've never been hit by lightning aboard a boat, but I've had 2 really close calls.

First one was when I was a kid fishing in Little River Inlet. Black clouds started forming, and I started heading back to Cherry Grove through Dunn Sound. The temp started dropping, and the wind started blowing, beginning to drive the rain horizontal, it felt like being pelted with rocks. As I was getting near the bridge to Waites Island, I passed the tide guage. I was probably no farther than 500 feet past the guage when a bolt of lightning hit it. Sounded like a 300 Winchester Magnum went off right next to me. I felt a tingle through the tiller handle, and the engine shut down, I had to re-start it. Made it back home, no visible damage to the boat or any components of the engine. Needed a new pair of pants, but that was about it. :mrgreen:



Second time was a few years ago, out on my jet ski. Once again, I saw bad weather approaching from the west, but before I could get back to port, the bottom fell out. I decided to hang out under the pier of a dock and wait for it to pass. Then I realized that pier was made of aluminum, probably not the best place to hang out. So, at that point, I decided to brave it and make the run back to port. The whole way back, I ran as close to the marsh grass as I could, and not standing up, either, trying to stay squatted down to lower my profile. I got back to the dock and put the ski on the sport port.

By this time the rain was really coming down. I needed to flush the salt water from the jet ski engine, and I figured it was one of those summer thunderstorms we have that lasts about 5 minutes, so, I figured I'd just stand there under the cover of the pool house and wait for it to pass. So, I'm standing there on the concrete slab, soaking wet, under an aluminum frame pool house structure, I might add. At one point, I saw a bright flash and felt current run up into my legs. I yelled and jumped about 3 feet off the ground, and about that time.....BLAM!! Lighting had hit a pine tree right across the street from the house, probably no more than 150 feet away. OK, enough standing around here!! Decided to seek cover indoors and wait for the storm to pass before going back down to the dock to flush the jet ski.


So, having had those 2 close calls, I don't care to have a 3rd encounter, because that one may not be so lucky. Some of my friends think I'm overly cautious about not going out on a boat if the sky looks bad, or I see something on the radar. I tell them "that's because you haven't been properly introduced to lightning like I have. Let it get close enough one time, you'll think differently."

That said, I've often heard that your chances of being hit are much greater in a fiberglass boat than in an aluminum boat, something to do with the grounding and the buildup of static charge. Supposedly this is why some fiberglass boat manufacturers put metal anodes or lugs on the sides of their boats, to achieve better grounding and to reduce the static charge of the boat as it moves across the water. Either way, I don't care to try it and find out! :shock:
 
All I can add is if your in a boat and can get to shore before it HITS..No mater what its made of..Lightning is BAD BAD stuff!!!And if your the highest point on the water you may be the target
 
Scary stuff as it is often impossible to run for cover where I go. Maybe fiberglass was not so bad after all? Lol
 
I was never in a boat that got hit, but when I was going back to Germany somewhere over the ocean the plane went thru a bad storm and it got hit twice. Bounced everyone around like rag dolls kinda made me glad when we were back on the ground
 
Checking the Internet, lightning causing holes in tin boats appears to be a rare occurrence. The holes appear to be caused by a combination of the configuration of the metal, fasteners and some times the shallowness of the water. When I was just out of the Navy, I helped install some lightning rods in Ohio. They told us that if you put a sharp bend in the ground cable, the lightning would not make the turn, shoot out from the wire and catch the building on fire. We used a 10" radius in the bend for the cable, I see where 8" radius bends are a minimum

Boats being struck by lightning appears to be rarer in fresh water than salt water.

One thing that caught my attention is that graphite rods appear to act as lightning rods.
 
I well remember a steelheading trip to a favorite river. Late afternoon, late summer, hot and humid. Storm came up very quickly. I am in waders, up to my waist in water and casting a graphite rod. First lightening strike was clearly a ways away...sound lagging behind by maybe 3 seconds. Second strike the sound was maybe a second behind. Third strike was very close sound and flash almost simultaneous. There was more lightening but I didn't hear it. I was busy doing my best immitation of running on water. Got to shore, dropped the rod and did a nose dive into the truck. Not pretty.
 
I saw a video a couple of months ago by a couple of tournament crappie guys. They were spider rigging and a storm began to roll up on them so they decided it was time to head in. The lightning hadn't started yet but there was so much static electricity in the air that they couldn't reel in. Every time they touched a rod, you could see the arc knock the snot out of them.... and they had 8 rods to reel up and stow away.
 
I wonder if painting slick bottom on the hull and rubberized bedliner inside would help?
 
rickybobbybend said:
I well remember a steelheading trip to a favorite river. Late afternoon, late summer, hot and humid. Storm came up very quickly. I am in waders, up to my waist in water and casting a graphite rod. First lightening strike was clearly a ways away...sound lagging behind by maybe 3 seconds. Second strike the sound was maybe a second behind. Third strike was very close sound and flash almost simultaneous. There was more lightening but I didn't hear it. I was busy doing my best immitation of running on water. Got to shore, dropped the rod and did a nose dive into the truck. Not pretty.

LOL!
 

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