Power line mast strike

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Bill6878

Has anyone experienced an electrical strike from an FP&L power line in Cocoa FL?
I recently did and was looking for information on contacting a lawyer to sue for damages. There are no markings or warnings about mast height safety in the anchorage with sailboats anchored on both sides of the power lines. My mast did not touch but my antennas might have. I have heard that the power from the high voltage lines can jump 10’ to a mast. All my electronics were fried, multiple fans, relays and wires burned up, mast and stays damaged and in need of repair. Quotes over $150,000 in repairs. Still waiting on insurance to reply to my claim.

Bill6878:

Might the Boater Comment copied and linked below, dated February 17, 2020, be your comment which was added to the WaterWay Guide article and Navigation Hazard Alert that I had linked above. It appears so given that the boat type is sail and the LOA is 43, the length of your Leopard catamaran. If so I see that you indicate that an air gap of 15 feet is recommended. I suspect that 15 feet is a learned by experience distance recommendation. Disheartening to have such a loss but it is the skipper's error in navigation that derives an allision.

http://https://www.waterwayguide.com...near-anchorage

"Comment by: Bill Wilson on Feb 17, 2020
Boat Type: Sail
LOA: 43'
Draft: 4.0'

Recently experienced this. Mast did not touch the power line but it arced at least 6’ twice taking out electronics, wiring, electrical circuits. No warning around power poles about height and danger. Be aware of the power lines and give at least 15’ clearance"

View location on the Waterway Guide Explorer

[s/v michaela]

When you experience two arcs... then the circuit has locked out. The breaker opens at the substation when a fault is sensed and gives the fault a chance to clear itself...ie; a tree branch burns in the clear. The reclosure timer then kicks in and allows usually 30 to 55 seconds before it closes in again. the substation breaker then closes in again and if no fault is detected it stays closed in. If a fault is detected then the breaker at the sub opens and stays open until the troublemen come out and physically clear the fault or find the cause. The fault generated can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage down stream as the fault current rushes back to the sub. A simple release of a mylar balloon that causes a phase to phase fault may result in wire on the ground for miles. If the person who releases the balloon is turned in then they are liable for the damage. Material,, crews,, and equipment are very costly and can bankrupt a person. Even the municipality will tack on their costs for having police at intersections ,,, etc.

[alansmith]

Bill, sorry to hear of your miserable experience. It is shocking how stupid we can be. We’ve all done things Ill considered. Montanan... one in a million guy... has it pretty well laid out for how it will look to a judge. You can go ahead an hire an attorney and spend another 20-50 K and 3 years of frustration upon frustration. Notch your BP up 20-30 points on both systolic/diastolic and even turn on cancer genes. Don’t smirk buddy, that sh!t happens all the time and people don’t realize it. Or you can accept the fact you messed up and just say what my Chinese wife says Ai ya!

Yes it was an expensive mistake. If u can afford a large beautiful cat you can afford the repairs. You gained a very valuable lesson and survived to tell about it. Your wife and you will be much more prudent.

Just take a deep breath and accept your responsibility as the skipper. You have had a lot of decent chaps try and tell you the skinny. Hopefully, a guy with enough smarts to afford an expensive boat like yours also has the nature to accept his mistake he made. Did you not take physics in high school or college? That is pretty standard stuff. Any time you have current moving through wire there is an arc/zone around that wire that affects things near by. My dad had a pacemaker. He asked to borrow my chop saw. He was putting cedar wood into my mom’s closet. He calls me a couple of days later. Says, “alan, I get dizzy every time I use your saw.” I felt so stupid. I said, “dad, I totally forgot about the windings in the motor creating a magnet when electricity flows through them. I’ll come over and do the cutting.” I’m a science major in college. But I had forgotten my basic physics. Pacemakers are affected dramatically by magnets. Even a small chop saw could’ve killed my dad. He dodged a bullet and it was my ignorance that almost cut his life short by 15 years. I would never have forgiven myself. Can you imagine your state of mind if your wife, child, or friends had been killed due to a mistake of that magnitude? Swallow hard and thank God you dodged a bullet like I did.

[jmschmidt]

You will have to subordinate your claim to the insurance company if they agree to honor your claim for an amount satisfactory with you. They may take the mater up with the power company to try to recover their costs or just drop it and eat what they pay you. Your subordination of the claim generally prevents you from filing a separate law suit.

[StoneCrab]

Bill, sorry to hear of your misfortune and thank you for sharing it here. This thread has been incredibly instructive. Thank you to all who contributed such informative posts.

[conchaway]

Personal responsibility?

[Bill6878]

Chart shows 87.9’ at main channel. That’s all it says no matter where you click on the power lines

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Bill6878

Chart shows 87.9’ at main channel. That’s all it says no matter where you click on the power lines

That’s normal, it’s the navigable channel that is controlled for vertical clearance.

[Bill6878]

That is my comment. Talked to a guy that works with this type of power lines who says it can jump 10’

[wsmurdoch]

Originally Posted by Bill6878

Chart shows 87.9’ at main channel. That’s all it says no matter where you click on the power lines

Not really, besides saying "OVHD PWR CAB CL 88 FT MAIN CHANNEL" it also says, "OVHD PWR CAB AUTH CL 38 FT".
https://www.waterwayguide.com/explor...mode=anchorage

Besides, all you have to do is quit pecking at the chart plotter and look at the power line. The power line goes down on both sides of the ICW channel, and the nearby anchored boats are either mast-less or small. Just look out the window... situational awareness.

[Sand crab]

Just tell your insurance company lightning hit it.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

Not really, besides saying "OVHD PWR CAB CL 88 FT MAIN CHANNEL" it also says, "OVHD PWR CAB AUTH CL 38 FT".
https://www.waterwayguide.com/explor...mode=anchorage

Besides, all you have to do is quit pecking at the chart plotter and look at the power line. The power line goes down on both sides of the ICW channel, and the nearby anchored boats are either mast-less or small. Just look out the window... situational awareness.

Mk1 first and foremost as to watch keeping, aided by utilization of aids such as a chart plotter.

[keepondancin]

Should be happy you're not dead. Some years ago, in what is now the Stuart anchorage, before they built the new bridge, the restaurant had closed, and the state owned the land, a single hander on a Morgan Out Islander drifted into the overhead wires, well away from the channel, and was fried. We had left a couple days before it happened.

[4palmer]

Hobie Cats, drag up to beach, hit power line while holding aluminum frame. Bad Outcome. Hobie, rasing mast...hit power line while holding aluminum mast while raising. Bad outcome. Hobie put mast up get in car, back down ramp, hit power line....get out of car approach boat while its touching power line...Put hands on aluminum frame....Stomach blows out from power surge.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

You will have to subordinate your claim to the insurance company if they agree to honor your claim for an amount satisfactory with you. They may take the mater up with the power company to try to recover their costs or just drop it and eat what they pay you. Your subordination of the claim generally prevents you from filing a separate law suit.

I am certainly no Lawyer, but I’m fairly certain your only real recourse is to to turn it into your Insurence company for a claim, and if someone else was negligent the Insurence company will go after them.
Only Insurence claim I have even made was I had a cleat break while we were Locking through, which of course set my boat free and it rotated some in the turbulent water flow and did some damage to my Solar Array and Radar Pole, once I looked there were several broken cleats on the locks as they were small aluminum cleats.
Called in the claim, they wanted pictures of the broken cleat and other broken cleats on the lock which I supplied, they said they were going after the Lock, which I doubt they could get anywhere, especially since it was such a small claim.

Especially if your Insurence pays the claim, you need to celebrate as many don’t survive your experience.
You won the Lottery, so don’t be upset about it happening so much as pleased that you and whoever else you had on board survived.