The Lightning Strike

It was a dark and stormy night. I don’t mean to plagiarize Snoopy or thousands of really bad novels but it really was a dark and stormy night when my boat was struck by lightning. This was not at all what I expected when I anchored off Key Largo. The weather report did not have any warnings but the NOAA radar showed a broad band across Lake Okeechobee that I thought would be moving north. After a few hours of shuteye the rain and thunder woke me up. I disconnected the GPS and hunkered down as far from the mast and rigging as I could get as lightning flashed all around. It only took a few minutes and BANG! Some of the misses were more impressive with big flashes and long rolls of thunder. This was just a short crack and the lights went out along with a slight smell of toasted electronics. A quick inspection showed nothing burning and no water coming in. The storm abated after a while, it only seemed like forever. Several more squall lines passed over, more lightning and some strong winds. This night I just could not get a break.

But I like to look for the silver lining and I was unhurt and the ocean was still on the outside. In the morning I assessed the situation. The VHF, autopilot, solar charger, outboard motors, stereo and some of the fans and florescent lights were dead. The breaker panel had really neat LED lights to indicate which circuits were on and for night lighting. Only half of the indicators worked and the night light function was totally shot. The compass lights did not work, The Starboard compass light was shattered in tiny bits. The Port light was in tact but the twisted wire was severed an inch from the light where there must have been a weakness in the insulation. The motors were the biggest problem, I checked the manual and replaced the fuses but they blew as soon as I tried to start the engine. The boat does not come with a grounding system so I had clipped a wire to the bottom of the mast support and dropped it down through the anchor locker. I think this did the job of directing most of the lightning into the water as the connection between the clamp and the grounding wire vaporized. The portable VHF and cell phone still worked so I called the tow company and I was soon under tow to Manatee Bay Marine

I had always felt sad for boaters being towed back to port. Now I was on the end of the tow line. I had decided I would do more boating this year and just in case I increased my towing coverage to $150. This was a shrewd move except that the tow cost $400. The tow proceeded North past Gilberts where I had hoped to spend the weekend listening to the band and sampling their liquor. The best laid plans... As we neared the marina that I had not been to before I had no idea of the course or the depth as I had not hooked up the GPS and was stuck steering behind the tow boat. We went down a canal and it kept getting narrower. The tow boat engine started coughing and sputtering as it slowed down and died once. Maybe they will have to rescue both of us! We made a sharp left into the marina, the channel was narrow but not too bad. Then we made a sharp right into an even narrower channel with the wind behind us pushing us towards other docked boats. We managed get both boats stopped without any damage but more than a little shouting between the tow crew and the yard manager.

At the yard I took a complete inventory of the damages and started removing the dead parts. All the running lights and the BBQ light were burnt out, some were shattered. They were easily replaced and put in working order. The red LED cockpit lights survived. A brand new LED reading light that I had just added was destroyed but another lamp where I replaced the incandescent G4 bulb with an LED bulb survived. Three of the seven fluorescent fixtures were shot and one worked but with reduced brightness. Two of the three fans I installed just vibrated a bit. The breaker for the solar charger would trip when I tried to set it. After removing the regulator I found that the panels were still functioning and only the regulator was zapped. I had intended to install a better unit anyway so this was not too much of a disappointment. I wired the solar panels directly to the breaker and for a few days I played manual regulator to keep the batteries charged and the beer cold in the refrigerator.

A friend drove down and returned me to Ft Lauderdale where I contacted the insurance company and started making lists and ordering parts. The insurance company sent a surveyor to look over the damage.

The new regulator and battery monitor was the first item I ordered and the installation was straight foreword.

For the current shunt I made a base from two pieces of Starboard to hold the shunt, a ground post connection and a ground strip and then mounted the assembly in the Starboard battery compartment. This allows the batteries to be individually connected to the ground post rather than daisy chained and for once luck was with me as all the ground cables had enough slack to reach the ground strip without modification.

A mechanic came by to check out the engines and found that besides the CDI ignition unit, the start switch was shorted. He ordered rectifier and tachometer units also as he could not tell if these were broke until the engines were running. As it turned out they were shot also. The replacement engine parts were the longest lead time items to getting the boat back together.

When we took the mast off the extent of the damage could be seen. The VHF antenna was nowhere to be found. The bracket it was mounted to was bent and the connector on the VHF cable was missing. Only the base of the anchor light remained. The top of the mast was discolored probably with vaporized plastic parts. There were scorch marks on the bottom of the mast seat and on the pin it sets on which shows where most of the charge passed through. The steaming light and spreader light were blown but the fixture was in tact and just looked a bit corroded.

The autopilot was easy to fix. The old unit was already obsolete and the new X-5 unit is almost identical but includes a rate gyro and more sophisticated software. West Marine had a replacement system and I replaced the computer module and it mostly worked. It took a while to realize that when I moved the compass the rate gyro caused the reading to slowly slew to the new direction because the boat was not actually turning. Also the compass reading was 200 degrees off which seemed strange but the setup software would compensate for any amount of offset. The new autopilot also does not require a rudder sensor. The rudder sensor was installed incorrectly at the factory and although I had repaired it, it still had some problems when the rudder went hard over. The original autopilot display was a bit flakey before being hit by lightning, it would beep and the display would blank for a few seconds about every 30 minutes. It was just a nuisance as the autopilot still functioned. After the lightning it had more flaky modes but replacing it  solved the problem.

The stereo was a Kenwood car unit with USB input. I really like putting my music on various memory sticks and just plugging one in. Although it was only a year old, it was already obsolete, that’s consumer electronics for you. The new and improved replacement had all the old features plus many more. What it did not have is front panel buttons so all the functions are accessed in a series of menus. They saved a couple of bucks in parts and if I study the manual for a couple of months I may be able to operate it. The main thing was the cabling and connector is identical to the old unit so it would be a simple plug in replacement. Or so I thought. Everything worked fine until I tried to put the bezel on and it would not fit. The metal sleeve that the radio slides into is 0.1 inch shorter on the new model so I had to remove the old sleeve and replace it with the new one which looks absolutely identical if you do not have a micrometer.

The florescent lights had a few problems before the lightning. Some were slow to start and generated some RF noise. Exact replacements were not available so why not upgrade the existing fixture with LED lights?

The fixture has a two way switch with a small 6W incandescent bulb and two florescent bulbs. I found some LED light strips with can be cut in sections and when cut in half are about the same length as the florescent bulbs. I fabricated two holders out of scrap plastic and screwed them to the bottom of the fixture which would hold 6 half light strips. For the galley fixture I installed 6 white half strips and a red LED festoon bulb which functions as a nightlight. For the head I installed 4 white half strips and 2 red half strips. For the starboard aft cabin the switch selects either 2 or 6 white half strips. The light output with 6 half strips is equal to the original fluorescent fixture and the current draw is slightly less.

The breaker panel has PCBs holding LEDs for backlight and circuit indications which were easy to remove from the panel. The LEDs were surface mount and there was a scorch mark around the connector where the anchor light, steaming light and spreader light come in. I could not find the exact LEDs and the ones I ordered were not as bright as the original LEDs but when installed in the panel there was no visual difference between the old LEDs and the new ones. It was fairly easy to remove the damaged parts with two soldering irons heating both sides of the part, easier than removing through hole components. Mounting the new ones just requires small tweezers and a steady hand.

Finally everything is repaired and it is time to complete the voyage home, just 2 weeks behind schedule.

I had removed the inflatable from the davits and rolled it up when I arrived at the marina. While blowing it up something shiny rolled around the bottom. It was the metal piece of the VHF antenna that connected the loading coil to the stainless steel whip

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My previous boat was also struck by lightning once in 25 years. I have had this boat for 1 year so I figure I have 24 more years before I have to worry about lightning again.

Happy Voyaging!