This last Saturday...we went sailing...for just a quick spin. Then without warning, all of the sudden, out of nowhere, from over the mountain, came a number of thunder heads, lightning and very heavy wind, that changed directions abruptly, often and dramatically.

We couldn't get back to shore before we were into this storm.

We didn't want to shred the sails or beat up the boat or get struck by lightning.... so we uncleated all the sheets and pulled the boat over onto its side and then placed our weight so the boat turned turtle (completely upside down.). That put the sails under water, protected them from the wind..and it put the mast so it wouldn't attract lightning, as readily.

When the boat is turtled, it is a very stable life raft, and the sails are a dandy sea anchor... Everything on the tramp was properly secured and had lanyards so we didn't have to ready anything or worry about losing it.

After about 20 minutes, of sitting on the trampoline of the turtled boat, the storm passed.

To un-turtle the boat, we should have been able to simply sit on one hull's keel and the boat should have slowly return to its side, with the sail parallel to the water's surface. From there the boat is usually simply righted with a righting line.

Well, he didn't properly seal his mast so it had lots of water in it. That meant we couldn't get the thing righted and on it's feet.

After a couple of hours...it really looked like we'd spent the night on the water, floating on the capsized boat.

We both had exposer suits so, though not great, we could have been somewhat OK for the night, on a lake in the mountains of Utah.

As it turned out, just before night fall, a person on shore happened to spot us through a telescope. They called a friend with a boat on the far side of the lake and talked them into going out to look for us.

They finally found us helped get the boat back on its feet and towed us back to our beach.

While you're doing your own penance, I have vowed not to ever again put the bad mouth on Wakeboarders or power boats....

You know, I usually sail with my own PFD and My sailing PFD is home to a small plastic sheath and scuba diver's knife...for cutting away sheets or whatever I may become entangled in during rough weather or a rough capsize. (The knife is equipped with a wrist strap, so I don't accidentally lose it when in the water). The PFD also has a couple of chem lights, a small flashlight, whistle, marine band waterproof hand-held marine radio, and a waterproof handheld G.P.S. I also have a small inflatable orange water weeny. I started carrying that when scuba diving...when I saw how hard it is for people on a boat to spot a bobbing head in the water. I also often carry my cell phone in a waterproof case, also attached to my PFD.

With a bit of sewing and ingenuity, this equipment is attached so it is very secure and doesn't flop around... and out of my way....yet very easy to get to.

Besides looking cool.... I have found through...well...past learning experiences... important things need to be readily available and with you, at hand.... especially when night sailing.... and I find it is easier to have it, than wish I did... and it helps keep simply problems from getting more complicated....

There have been a few times when I thought my day on the water would turn out one way....and it turned out different.

This was one of those times and that stuff would have been swell.... but I didn't have it with me this time...

Bummer to have to re-learn something, again and again...

There's no such thing as a quick spin and equipment doesn't do much good in the car's trunk....

Hey Tom,

Was that at Bear Lake? Sounds like the type of storm that broke my diamond wire/spreader last year.

I'll be up in a few weeks.

Glad to hear you did not have to spend the night on the lake Tom; glad the both of you are unharmed!

GARY

I got caught out in a little summer t-storm last week myself, but fortunately we were able to make it to shore before it really hit. I realized that I really don't know what one is 'supposed' to do in the case of lightning. Turtling the boat sounds like a good idea. Does anyone else have experience or thoughts about this?

Yeah, I have thoughts. I think it is safer to keep the boat upright. I have yet to hear of any instance of a beach cat being directly struck by lightning on the water. All the reported hits that cause damage have been on land.

Occasionally, people get zapped on the water if they are touching stays or other metal or are out on the trapeze. Some of these "zaps" are temporarily debilitating.

A very experienced friend of ours said if he is working race committee on a powerboat, when lightning is in the area, he rafts up with one of the catamarans, because that is the safest place to be.

If you turtle the boat and sit on the bottom of the turtled boat, the highest point is now your head, plus you are sitting in water. Neither is good.

Just my personal opinions.

Tom,

Did you look to maybe 'hoist' a floatable object (lifejacket, throwable, etc.) up one of the halyards to give some floatation to the mast? If the boat were spinnaker equiped, getting to the spinnaker halyard would be pretty easy. Otherwise, but not quite as effective, the jib halyard might sufice. 'lower' (raise underwater) the sail and attach the floaty item to the halyard. Then hoist the halyard to bring the item down the mast. Try to right the boat again. Hopefully, if you find yourself in this scenario again, that might help get the boat on it's side so you can start problem solving with regard to draining the mast.

Wow.
This is a really interesting thread.

As I very often feel in this forum though, I dont really have anything to contribute in addition, other than to say that again I have learned from you guys.

I would though, like some kind of scientific explanation for why a cat would be less likely to be struck by lighting than a regular boat. Mary, to be sure, has a billion times more experience than I, but it seems counter intuitive. Especially in light of the comment of the other boat rafting up with a cat. AND, if that was true, Id keep my cat away from the lightning rod comittee boat.

Just my .02

E

I was doing some research on the web about lightning protection in a sailboat and found one sentence that surprised me. The author said the only way worse than being in a lightning storm than on a boat with a mast is to be on a boat without a mast. Apparently people are hit more on power boats than sail boats. I also remember when Hobie offered to retrofit my mast to the comptip mast, the pros and cons given said, as a con, the comptip mast reduced the cone of protection from lightning. From this I think that turning the boat over was not the best thing to do.

There is a lot of information on lightning protection on the internet. I have been trying to decide whether or not to ground the mast on my catboat(monohull). Grounding increases the chance of being struck but protects you and the boat. Not grounding the mast decreases the chance of being struck but increases the damage if it is. That may be why the catamaran doesn't get hit as much (no grounding).

The PFD with the accessories sounds like a great idea. I am going to re-evaluate my "preparations for sailing". Carrying a multi purpose tool with knife, pliers, etc. would be good if they are available in stainless.

Howard

I think there is another important security rule that you did not obey: if you go out alone, always let someone know that you are going out and when you are planning to come back. This would have definitively helped you, in our club it is obligatory.

How far were you out? Could you have released your forestay and then righted your boat and paddled in with the mast lying on the boat? I think you could get the boat righted with no mast, but not sure. It might be better than spending the night on the water.

I hate to even think of the lightning thing. That stuff is so unpredictable and no one has survived a direct hit. Even indirect hits on land have killed people. I just hope no one ever finds out what will happen.

Matt

It's nearly impossible to right an inverted cat with its mast off- by 2 people. This is knowledge from my very first experence with a Hobie 16 in salt water. 2 large local fishermen from Cedar Key with a flats boat got us right side up. No way for 2 people to do it, as there is no leverage.

I didn't say a cat is less likely to be struck than a regular boat. It's just that I have been involved with beach-cat sailing for over 40 years, so I would have been more likely to hear about lightning hitting a beach cat than, for instance, a Thistle. But, actually, I have never heard of it directly hitting any type of small sailboat on the water. Just on land, as I said.

As far as big sailboats, we have personally heard of several reports of them being hit by lightning, but I think in virtually every case the boats were grounded. Even with the grounding, some of those suffered significant damage. If the grounding is not done properly, the lightning can go shooting all around through the interior of the boat. In one case, it traveled right under somebody's pillow in their bunk.

I think the theory about the "cone of protection" (which I believe in) might not apply, however, to unstayed masts. I think the metal stays play an important part in providing the protection. So would you be less protected if you use line instead of cable for stays? I don't know.

I think it is true about powerboats being more likely to be hit by lightning than sailboats. A guy was crossing Biscayne Bay in a Boston Whaler and was hit in the head by lightning (obviously, fatal).

The biggest lightning attracter on powerboats, though, is an antenna.

There is a long, very interesting thread somewhere on this forum about lightning.

But it is all just theories and opinions, and nobody seems to know for sure how to best protect against lightning -- just like nobody knows for sure how to protect against shark attacks.

Funny thing. When I used to work for the Sizzler company, one of the minor selling points was that the boat was safer in lightning because it was automatically grounded, since the hulls were made of aluminum. But now I'm not so sure that is a good thing.

Having read through what has been said, and adding my own personal and third party experiences, I have to say that in the given scenario I would NOT turtle the boat. My preference would be to drop the main, roll it up nice and tight and lash it to the boat with the mainsheet. Then I'd see about getting back to shore under jib only.

If I didn't have a jib? I guess I'd weigh up my location and either run under bare mast or drift until I was able to find bottom and anchor. You do all carry anchors don't you?

The 'fully loaded' PFD sounds like a great idea although you would risk being given a 'Rambo' label.....

Whoops, I did find one incident in one of the other lightning threads. A Hobie 14 was hit on the water. Nobody injured, but it melted a bow fitting.

Anchors???

From a long ago thread on anchors, i remember Rick Bliss talking about a flipped boat being diven onto a lee shore and he commented saying that an anchor large enough to work could not be carried on the cat.

if you are serious about an anchor, what size do you use and what conditions.

My impression is that they are pretty useless on a cat.

The anchor comment was sort of tongue-in-cheek. However, having said that, if I'm not racing I have been known to carry an anchor - a 3.2Kg folding grapnel type. When I have used it, I've had no problems with it holding in up to about force 5 or so.

In the situation we're talking about, even if it didn't hold at least it would slow the boat and hold it head to wind.....

Actually, come to think of it I once won a race at the Condor Nationals BECAUSE I was carrying an anchor! - there was no wind at one point and a strong tide so I anchored. By the time the wind filled in with a seabreeze, the rest of the 30 or so boats were a mile or more downtide and downwind! I think I won that one by about half an hour from the second boat

A big enough anchor to work effectivly in a real squall would be pretty heavy , bulky, and difficult to store on a small cat; these problems would be compounded by the need to keep on board enough rhode and maybe chain to allow an anchor to be effective and not just drag. However, a sea anchor might work quite well. The advantages of the sea anchor is it's very light, folds fairly small and can be lashed to a trap. I could be used out in the middle of the lake and doesn't require a long rhode or chain. You would drift some but in your typical 10-20 min squall that may not be far enough to worry about (if you were that close to shore you'd just head in instead). In the scenario above, you might just drop all sails, lash them to the tramp, and deploy a sea anchor from a bow bridle.

A sea anchor would also be a useful thing to have on board for regular capsizes in higher winds when you're having trouble keeping the bows into the wind to right the boat (could come in real handy if you capsize on the coast and want some time before being blown onto a rocky shore or in the even you capsize in offshore winds and are having trouble righting the boat). To work properly you'd need to run it off a bridle between the bows. I don't know if you could run it off a spi pole - anyone ever try that? They come in a wide range of sizes and you need to size it for the size of the craft and the amount of drift you're willing to tolerate. The only downside I know of is that they're actually fairly expensive. The inexpensive drogues used by fishermen to drift fish are NOT suitable.

How many people out there have a sea anchor on board and have any experience using it on small cats?

Jerry

Why is this?

Why not just drop the whole rig, mast, sails etc, wait for the storm to pass, then rerig the boat and sail home.

You guys are no fun, someone was supposed to say "how do you put the mast up while out at sea" then I get say "its easy with a rig like this" and post this...


Our rig actually came down last weekend due to operator incompetence on my part, we were about a mile out and did indeed manage to put it all back up and sail home.

Gareth
www.fourhulls.com