photo of lightning striking a mast

[ewan]

impressive photo (as it's not my boat) of lightning striking a mast in Sydney Harbour.

link to pic and news article --

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...407856094.html

[BrianW]

It is an impressive image!

Feel bad for the owner of the sailboat. Guess he took one for the team.

[Lucky Luke]

"narrowly missed luxury yachts owned by the likes of Nicole Kidman but almost wiped out a yellow sloop moored at Rushcutters Bay"

Bet Kidman's (motor) yacht was better insured than this cute little sailing boat...which I would not be surprised that it's a woodenboat...:-(

Yes, this boat could easily ave been wiped out, and will anyway have all its eletrics and electronics fried, and his mast's alloy destroyed... Means a new mast and quite possibly new shrouds...

[Todd Bradshaw]

My wooden Starboat once got struck by lightning while sitting mast-up on the trailer. It vaporized the top half of the Windex shaft, came down the rig, blew a hole in the bottom about 8" diameter and then burned the ground around the trailer's support leg. There was stuff that looked like sawdust all over the inside of the hull. Other than the hole and the Windex though, everything else was fine and luckily there weren't any electronics, running lights, etc. to get damaged. I had a full Sunbrella cover with little collars snugged-up around the headstays, shrouds, runners and mast, but was surprised that it didn't damage them. Nasty stuff, and after a two-year re-build finding a hole blown in the bottom can spoil your whole day.

My wooden boat restorations come out lovely, but seem to attract natural disasters.... I once rebuilt an 18' Simmons Skiff - new bottom, motor well, deck and total refinish. About a year later it was tied to a pier on Lake Michigan riding out a storm and doing fine...until the pier fell over and smashed it to splinters. I still enjoy restoring boats, but at this point I'm kind of afraid to ride in them once they're done.