daily updates and details at www.sailblogs.com/member/sempergumbi?

----- Original Message ----- > daily updates and details at www.sailblogs.com/member/sempergumbi? > REPLY Interesting comments about having to disconnect all the electronics and relying on steering by magnetic compass. I think this should elicit some interesting discussions among cruisers. A steel hull is effectively a grounded faraday cage. Would this not provide some protection inside the hull? Admittedly it does not protect against a direct hit and perhaps a very close strike may also produce damaging voltages. Professor Ewen Thompson has done some superb research and his commercial company provides lightning protection systems. I get the impression most of his systems are fitted to GRP hulls. How and what is different in metal hulls has not been mentioned. As for the compass, I am inclined to give consideration to a stand alone KVH Azimuth 1000 with a stand alone power supply. Being inside a faraday cage it should be fairly well protected and thus secure even in a lightning storm. This si one magnetic reading compass that can compensate for a steel hull. They also have a gyro stabilized model specifically intended for the commercial, fishing fleet market where steel hulls is very common. My own tests indicate the manufacturer's claim for accuracy in steel hulls is valid. cheers Arild