Lightning strikes onboard a yacht

2 Aug - 57' Beneteau struck by lightning

First symptom - starter contacts sticky (burned out the starter!)

Second sympton - 24v battery charger not working

Third - 24v Alternator fried

Fourth - No GPS, Radar, depth, autopilot, wind indicator, rudder angle indicator, SSB, Sat phone, navtex, stereo, windlass remotes down

Fifth - Generator won't start (CPU burned out)

My bad, didn't realize it was lightning until I had already replaced the starter, battery charger AND the alternator. As all other equipment is 24v and run through the batteries and as the batteries had completely died as there was no way to charge them, it wasn't until I had fully charged the batteries and found none of the equipment working...

First I thought it was just a faulty starter. As I'm just minding the boat, I didn't realize the batteries weren't getting charged via the shore power or alternator for a few days.

As the battery charger was brand new and didn't have a mark on it, I had to send it out only to find out it wasn't working and they didn't know what was wrong with it. I had a mechanic come who discovered the fried 24v alternator. It was his opinion that the alternator had gone bad (bad diode?) allowing the battery charger to go...

Luckily, now that we know it WAS lightning, we'll be covered by insurance.

Whew! As the bill is going to be a big one for all that!

Photos of the exploded VHF antenna and one of the fried Sea Talk boxes.

No, went to bring boat in from mooring to the dock just a day or two after strike - batteries were still charged. By the time I got to the dock, the starter was burned out (about 15 minutes run time).

No, didn't see the starter opened up and am just going by what the electronics tech said (I trust him implicitly as he's an electrical engineer who used to contract for the defense industry). By the time Al came to diagnose why I didn't have any electronics after having new starter, charger, alternator in place, when I mentioned the faulty starter, he said he'd seen a few lightning strikes cause starter problems.

By the time we found the burnt out Sea Talk unit, coupled with all the failures happening at the same time (everything had been running perfectly til then), and having gone up the mast to find a non-existent VHF antenna, what else but lightning could have caused all this?

I'm open to suggestions!

When I took the alternator in for repair, the first thing they asked was, "was the boat hit by lightning?"

I'm also open to suggestions as to what else to look for as a result of a lightning strike. I've got a diver coming tomorrow to look at all the through hulls, running gear, zincs, etc.

Thanks, I also have a rigger coming to inspect everything close up...

Cheers.

Kiwi,

What about exit point? If VHF antenna was entry point and the Sea talk box was melted, would there necessarily be a noticeable exit?

Dan

Thanks, bro...