In an earlier lifetime I had a Columbia 28 sailboat with a 40 some foot (grounded to the keel) aluminum mast. Sailed it through many a thunderstorm on the Chesapeake Bay and never had a lightning strike. The way I heard it was there is less resistance for the lightning to strike directly in the water rather than travel the mast, stays and other hardware. I was also once involved in working on an aircraft performing lightning strike experiments for NASA. It was very difficult to get lightning to hit that thing without trying to charge the fuselage to attract it. FWIW, Dave G. At 18:20 8/20/02, Rafael Mier Maza wrote: <snip a bunch> >I wouldn't mind paddling in such a river but I have escaped from lakes >quickly when thunderstorms approach. > >I keep worrying when thinking about sailboats with big alluminum masts. > >Best Regards, > >Rafael >el cayuco chief. >Mexico. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Aug 20 2002 - 16:50:17 PDT
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