Thunder ang lightning

Originally posted by Time Lord " wet suit acted like a Faradays cage (look it up it's what happens in cars and airplanes). I think there would be less contact in a dinghy since we're not holding onto the boom as we do windsurfing." Doubt that your wetsuit would act as a Faraday cage as this has to be metal and conduct electricity. More likely the neoprene acted as an insulator and protected you in that way. Not sure whether the shrouds, mast and boom on a conventional dinghy would act as a Faraday but certainly possible. A few years ago I did a web search for reports of dinghy sailors being hit by lightning but could find no reports. By the way, carbon fibre conducts electricity almost as well as aluminium.

In as much as it was wet all over and I watchet the blue flashes as they crackled up my arms then down my legs.

I think we need a Boffin to pass judgement on this one 

Leaving training sessions aside, shouldn't race participation be a matter of RRS4, ie. the sailor himself makes his own risk assessment thus removing those decisions from the RO, who is usually an unpaid volunteer.
We all make our own decision to race in any given wind strength/sea state, lightning is just weather and we all understand weather.
However if I were RO I may abandon if I was concerned for the wellbeing of my fellow volunteers on the water providing rescue cover.

Originally posted by blueboy [QUOTE=piglet] At my club if acting as RO I have to fill in and file cheerful risk assessment forms before I can hoist any class flags and I imagine most clubs are the same. If they are not they need to join the 21st century.

Does a dinghies rigging work as a Faraday Cage?  In a yacht one could have a grounding system in heavy duty cable from the top of the mast to the keel or a grounding plate.  Again in yachts the thing that most experts can agree on is don't have the highest mast in the harbour!