Next message: (no name): "Re: lv-ab: Lightening Protection setup comments?"
While considering this stuff (not implemented yet), I was concerned
about capacity and routing (of the paths, connectors, and grounds),
galvanic action between dissimilar metals (paths, connectors, grounds),
and maintenance/repair of the grounds which live in sea water and are
exposed to collision damage.
The grounds need to be easily replaceable IMO, but the real problem may
be galvanic action, especially at bolts holding the grounds on. Also,
if a ground gets ripped off, what does it do to hull integrity? I
haven't tried to find large copper nuts and bolts (3/8" to 1/2"), but
that would seem to be necessary to deal with galvanic action if the
grounding srips were copper. But a further problem is that the SS
rigging which is part of the path has so many *other* potential small
grounds that you can't really plan on isolating it so that your
lightening ground strips are the *only* place the rigging gets connected
to salt water; this means that you're almost sure to have a galvanic
couple set up between the rigging and a copper grounding strip, even if
all your connectors are the same metal under water... It may be better
to use SS strips underwater for grounding, even though they would need
to be cleaned regularly. If they are located very near the surface, they
could be cleaned from the dingy using a paint scraper. However (!) I
don't know whether SS actually would act as a good ground connection,
since the surface immediately generates a thin film of protective
oxidation - that's how it gets to be "stainless".
Well, you asked for thoughts. <g>
Rufus
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