Re: Lightening and the Aluminum boat?
what i have always been told is that lightening hits the hightest point
if you boat is highter then the water would not the boat get hit.
What you have been told is wrong.
If there is a water strike nearby, this is what to expect:
A brilliant flash, and -- almost simultaneously -- the electric
ZZZZZZZZWAPPPPPPPP! sound, followed instantaneously by a thunder clap that will make you crap your pants. You can smell the burned ozone (that certain electrical smell) in the air, but you will be safe (unless it hits you, the boat, the engine or an appurtenance. Total elapsed time would be about 1/8 of a second.
Lightening doesn't hit the highest point all the time, but it's better to be low and in an safe enclosure. A boat cover does not count. Might feel good to be under it, but lightening pretty much doesn't acknowledge its existence.
I lost a friend at 15 years of age to a lighting strike when he was seated next the the outboard engine on a fiberglass boat. Everyone confirmed that the engine took the hit -- Hardly the highest point.