Shocking Times

[Heath]

This one has me stumped!!!

While heading out fishing this arvo, I could hear a "tick tick" sound. Arrived at our location & after anchoring it starts to get worse & worse. Our bloody rocket launchers were LIVE, just touching them would give us a belt. They were at the point of crackling just as high voltage wires do when it rains. We basically have 3 electrical devices that run on along the rocket launchers. Fluro, Riding light & GPS antenna. So I get the wire cutters out & start hacking away. First the fluro, to no effect & then the riding light. Ok no difference, so I pull both sets of wires right out. Still no difference. So, we turn the battery off, the bloody charge is still there!!! I remove the 15A fuse that feeds the pos bus under the dash & still no difference. So I pull the GPS antenna out. No difference.

What the bloody hell is it? So I pull the wiring loom away from the rocket launcher mounting points & this still made no difference.

As you can see in the picture below the launcher is mounted at 4 points. The left side has no wiring what so ever. The right hand side has all wiring running in it.

When touched the crackling would stop, however when let go it would get louder & louder. To the point of actually sparking where the 2 halves of the launchers meet ( they fold in half, but we never pull them down)

When touched with a set of pliers which are insulated the crackling would cease. As soon as they were removed it would start. I got my oldman to get the gaff. Its 4 foot long with a wooden handle. Same thing, when the metal touched on the rocket launcher the crackling would stop.

I am positive that there was no wire touching the rocket launcher. Even with all electrics isolated it was still there.

Heres the weird bit, we stopped off to get bait, there was no issue. However as we approched our spot, we were under a dirty grey thumder cloud, as there was a storm brewing.

Could this have been static build up?? I have no other explanation for it.

I also splashed some water onto the rocket launcher, this eased the charge significantly, naturally earthing out to the water.

I've worked with electrical equipment most of my life & this just does not make sence.

When we arrived back into shore, we sat in the river & there was no issue.

I remember a while back that someone elese had a similar issue with a stainless boarding ladder giving them a kick... I can't find the string though.


Any ideas?????

[shawn]

G'day Heath,
A couple of my mates from this board had the same thing with their fly rods standing up in front of the console. There was a storm way out to sea and the rods were humming. They could hear it as they drove along. Once they worked out that it might be from the storm they put the rods on the floor and the noise stopped. Then they got the hell out of there.

I remember Dr Carl talking about this years ago. Something about the lightning trying to find some where to ground. You might have been lucky you never got zapped big time. :o :o :o
Cheers....Shawn.

[Heath]

Shawn,

Yes, that was playing on my mind, as I too saw a doco about lightning & how it works.

I have no other plausable explanation to it.

[PinHead]

I would presume it would be from the charge in the air...I would suggest earthing the rocket launcher..could make a difference

[SteveCan]

Sounds like you might have got a bit lucky Heath.

Nice to have you still with us....

Cheers
Steve

[Big_Kev]

Welcome to the twilight zone heath.
Do you have any magic powers, like coaxing the fish towards the boat.
Might be something to do with the weather and the high humidity and the vinyl top rubbing on the frame causing static purhaps.
Sounds freaky but.Have you seen any ghosts or UFO's LOL.
Kev.

[jocool]

UUUUMMMM...Heath..

My grandad dies a while ago...and there was some stuff I should have told him......AAAAGGGHHH...forget it...Ill tell him when I get there! :'(

[imported_admin]

Heath

Sounds like a static build up to me, especially since you say it stops if you touch it holding a pair of insulated pliers or a gaff with a wooden handle.

It is also the highest point of your boat and therefore should be earthed. By this i mean it should have the same potential as the water so you should make sure it is connected to your motor or anything else that is metal and in the water. You should use some fairly large cable, about the size of the negative wire that runs to your motor.

With the design of your rocket launcher and add on to this several rods, possibly graphite or even wet, you have a perfect lightning attractor. If this is not earthed and you end up in a storm you could be in for some serious problems.

Even without being hit by lightning the static charge can build up enough to give someone a heart attack, especially if they have a heart condition. The electric shock can be enough to throw out the persons heart rythym causing Fibrilation (heartbeat out of sync) or Arrhythmia (variation from the normal heartbeat)

[scubapro]

Has this happened to anyone else?

his is the first time I have heard of this happening & with thousands of boats out on the water you would think it would have happened to someone.

I am now very concerned as I also have a similar setup to Heath's.

Scubapro

[-Henno-]

Whilst collecting live bait off the wharf at HMAS Creswell for some LBG we got hammered by a freak electrical storm and a small finger off the main bolt of lighting hit me behind my right knee and exited through my right foot/shoe.
This is why Heath should take me fishing more often. Lightning does not strike in the same place twice! Just don't come near any of my electrical equipment with ya side cutters you nonce!

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

heath,

my advice would be to grab your Golf bag, take out the 1 iron & firmly tape it to the highest point of your boat ....

Not even God can hit 1 iron. ;D


waiver : anyone who follows this advice is a fool - Chris aka GWH has no electrical qualifications & even fewer golf qualifications (just ask the people who own houses adjoining the Indooroopilly Golf Club!)

[Brett_Hoskin]

What happened to the response I posted a week ago.

The problem is probably nothing more than a difference of potential between the 2 sections of launcher caused by a small amount of corrosion , causing the differential. Just run a small bonding wire between the different launcher sections and you should be OK.