I’ve never been struck by lightening, but I’ve been as close as humanly possible and still survived.
We were racing Bill Miller’s Schumaker 40 in the Chicago Mackinac Race. The second night I was below sleeping when I was awakened by a loud “ALL HANDS ON DECK !” the second time in my life. It seems a thunderstorm was building out of nowhere, and we had too much sail up. To make matters worse, we had planned on a light air race and were using the 3DL main that had no reef points. The main had to come off the mast.
The owner had a firm rule that no one went on deck at night without a harness. There was no such rule about foul weather gear. I found my way to the mast and was pulling the main down in a driving rain wearing only my long johns. I was standing on the deck in front of the mast with my arms around the mast grabbing the luff of the main. I know it is impossible, but my brain registered the sound before I was aware of the flash of light. I said sound, but it was really more of a shock wave that overpowered the ability to hear. The flash of light was the brightest light I’ve ever seen, and it was everywhere.
A second or two later I was relieved to take a breath and take inventory of my extremities. Everything seemed to be OK except my eyesight. One minute we were working on deck in the middle of the night with an overcast sky and no moon. The next minute we were inside a carbon arc light. I was hopeful my vision would return, but clearly blind at the moment. Then I heard a voice “Can anyone see anything?” That was followed by a series on No’s. Next Bill started calling the names of the crew and fortunately every answered to their names.
I don’t know where the lightening bolt went, but it was close. None of the electronics on the boat were damaged, and I can also vouch for the mast not getting hit. I am pretty sure if I was meant to be killed by lightening, that was the night it was supposed to happen.