Lightning & boats

The gentleman that bought my 2001 TS 182 called to inform me that the boat he had bought from me had sunk, and was on the bottom of Lake Sharpe. I turns out that the boat’s electronics were zapped by lightning that struck a tree on shore nearby, and traveled across the water, and into the boat. The Mother board on the OptiMax fried, the wires from the transducers were melted, as was the bilge pump. The boat took on water over the splash guards, and the boat went down. The guys in the boat were OK, obviously sheilded be either the floor or their shoes. They were very lucky.
Last week as a storm approached Bob Carlson and I on Mille Lacs during the Wacker, our Auto Pilot began to spin around like the chick’s head on The Excorcist! Once the storm passed, all was OK. It pays to respect the power of lightning. Be careful out there, It does not have to hit you directly to kill or injure. I was struck once up at Camp Ripley, and believe me, it hurts!
Tuck

Chris,
Did the boat really sink? I thought all boats were to supposed to have enough built in flotation to keep them from sinking even when filled with water.

Dave Gulczinski

You getting zapped,That explains alot!!!!!!

According to the guy, it had to be salvaged from the lake bottom. I would think they had to provide enough flotation too. But with an Opti and kicker, she might have been back heavy?? I don’t know.

When it comes to lightning and me in the boat I am a Chicken S#&*, or really smart, I will get out fast.
My buddy told me that he was on Milacs once and with a storm approching his graphite rod began to hum and then discharge in his hand!? At that point he felt it was time to scoot.
My guess is that I would rather be around to fish another day than really take the big risk for that very, very last fish.

if they were typical walleye fisherman they had enough lead to sink a battle ship… let alone a fishing boat!!

Tuck! LOL…………..you know, at least when you do something that makes people rub their chin a bit, you’ve got a GREAT excuse! I have to fall back on being BORN that way! On a more serious note, glad to see everything turned alright for everyone mentioned in your post and just because I always try to find the “lighter side of things”, I don’t want to lessen the severity of your topic or diminish any respect to it’s issues.

On the lighter side again, how many years has it been now that you’ve been able to talk to walleyes???

That is a scary deal, the last to times I have been on Lake Pepin I got caught in a storm with Lightning, no good! I do not even hesitate to make a be line out of there. I was golfing with my wife and her sister and saw both of them with there hair was standing on end! Told them not to even think of raising a club and be lined out of there, there was no, lets say storms around yet but there was one on the way.

Kirt

I was on Mille Lacs Friday night when a bad storm approached. We were watching lightning far, far north when all of a sudden a small, dark cloud a couple of miles produced a bolt of lightning. Surprise the heck out of us and we were off the water in a minute. I was very surprised at the number of boats that didn’t get off of the water. Mother Nature is not to be messed with-especially on the big pond.