Posted by katorpus (katorpus@…>)
I’m with you Tom. For what it’s worth, about 3 yrs ago my boat was 3
slips away from a direct hit on the mast head of a 30’ S-2
(strangely, it was my previous boat). I don’t have to tell you that
my (much taller, carbon fiber) masts presented a way-more tempting
target (to Thor or whoever). Every boat on that dock which had an
inverter connected up lost it. The pieces of the all-around masthead
light and windex on the S-2 were scattered around the marina
(several of them on my deck). Everything electrical on the S-2 was
destroyed.
I know two different people who essentially lost entire houses to
lightning strikes. Neither resulted in fire, but in both cases, the
houses had to be stripped down to the studs on the inside because
every inch of wiring and plumbing and air conditioning ducting was
destroyed. One was at the coast and on pilings. The lightning
had “nowhere to go” and blew out a front wall of a bedroom enroute
to the ground.
The other house was on a slab ( and, incidently, across the street
from the house I lived in at the time). Same type of damage, with
one interesting addition. In the living room, the carpet had burn
holes in the perimeter all the way around from the little nail
points sticking up through the carpet tack strip. This particular
house was completely shaded by large trees that were WAY taller than
the house. There was no damage evident in any of the trees, and the
initial point of entry was an aluminum roof vent. The “exit point”
in this house was the plywood ceiling in the carport, which was
blown to pieces.
None of this “proves” anything, except that…if it’s gonna happen,
it’s gonna happen, and it doesn’t seem more likely that it’s gonna
happen to us.
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “tom” <ketch_22@e…>
wrote:
Freedom/TPI was building carbon fiber masts in the late 70s that I
am
aware of (perhaps longer?). After nearly 40 years of carbon fiber
masts in production, it seems likely that if lightning was an
issue,
every carbon spar from FL to TX along the Gulf coast would be in
tatters by now.
This not being the case, it seems certain that lightning is not
fatal
to carbon fiber, any more than it is to aluminum.
Tom Marlow
F39 - Ketch 22
Carbon spar (2)
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “williedoylemom”
<williedoylemom@y…> wrote:
A friend told me that if lightening hits a carbon fiber mast it
will
destroy the core. You won’t know if this has happened until
some
stress is put on the mast and then it will just buckle. I’ve
researched this on Google and cannot confirm it. Does anyone
know if
something like this? Or is it just an urban myth. We are
considering
buying a Freedom 35, looking at some here in Florida now. We’d
like
to know if this is something we should watch out for. Thank you,
Faith
www.faithandrewsbedford.com