Re: [Cal_Boats] Lightning and bonded through hull sinks boat in Wisconsin.

I think my Cal 39 may be bonded like that as well but it may just be the chain plates to the keel. I've seen a good sized wire covered by at least one layer of fiberglass near the chainplates but have not looked closely at the thru hulls in some time. Hmmmmmm Paul In a message dated 6/28/2011 12:58:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ch… [at] gmail.com writes: Interestingly enough, my 78 CAL 3-29 came stock from the factory with all thru hulls bonded and the bonding wire glassed into the hull. Not nice. Gets who took out the gutting tools...:) /ch

If you live where there is lightning you probably need some path for the lightning to get to the water. That might go through the chainplates to the keel, I have no idea. Good to not have the through hulls part of that path though. It is a complex issue given the presence of AC on a boat. You have three competing issues, AC safety, metal safety, and lightning protection. Allen On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:08 AM, <pw… [at] aol.com> wrote: > ** > > > ** > I think my Cal 39 may be bonded like that as well but it may just be the > chain plates to the keel. I've seen a good sized wire covered by at least > one layer of fiberglass near the chainplates but have not looked closely at > the thru hulls in some time. Hmmmmmm > > Paul > > In a message dated 6/28/2011 12:58:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > ch… [at] gmail.com writes: > > > > Interestingly enough, my 78 CAL 3-29 came stock from the factory with all > thru hulls bonded and the bonding wire glassed into the hull. Not nice. Gets > who took out the gutting tools...:) > > /ch > > >

Yup thats its exactly, and the three systems should not be tied together. Like all things its simple once your understand it. Aside from your article, which is great, Don Casey lays out the same. And your right, no one wants to listen either, other then those lads heading into the deep who even deploy faraday cages to protect their electronics, when it starts to light up. In most cases the oven will do if outfitted with such. But they rarely get hit, its the boats closer to shore that get pinged and geographically trackable if you look at the data /ch On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 1:12 PM, Allen Edwards < al… [at] paloaltophoto.com> wrote: > > > > It is a complex issue given the presence of AC on a boat. You have three > competing issues, AC safety, metal safety, and lightning protection. > > Allen > >