"Garland Gray II" wrote
My boat was struck by lightning once, and one of the exit points was the
thru mounted depth sounder. Wasn't much left to keep the water out. I
remember wondering why this particular locker seemed to have more light in
it than I had previously noted. Understood why at next haulout. I now
rather
favor inhull transducers.


I have heard of several instances where the depthsounder transducer was
blown out of the bottom a boat on a lightening strike.

One of these, was a trimaran which was fortunate because the centre hull was
completely flooded. The mast was grounded and there were several seemingly
better paths for a strike to reach the water - But, the lightening somehow
caused the thin transducer wiring to fry and had sufficient power to blow
the entire thru-hull out and char the bottom in approx a 2' radius.

Just the other day, I saw a boat being sold for salvage that had had a
similar strike while at dock - the boat had sunk at it's mooring - cause -
depth transducer blow out.

And a bit earlier, I read about a similar instance in the Great lakes - I
forget the details.

Not sure if an in-hull installation would be better, but I suspect so.

Seems strange - Any theories?

GBM