Lightning Strike Damage

The tally is now in for the lightning damage on our catamaran. This covers what was verified, repaired and/or replaced. I’ll include some prices to give some idea the scale of damage that was done. All-in-all, not really that much compared to what could have happened.

All work was performed by Just Catamarans in Dania Beach, Florida. We developed a good relationship with them through work they did for us just after we bought the boat in Oct 2017.

In essence all systems were verified so I’ll leave out that long list, and only include those items that were replaced and/or repaired below. Each of these costs are the retail price as per Just Catamarans. Keep in mind other boat yards may charge more or less for each item, so I’ll leave out the individual prices:

• Magnum 2000W Inverter/Charger
• Generator cooling intake lift pump
• 2 X GFCI outlets
• Splendide Washer/Dryer
• Raymarine VHF60
• Raymarine Axiom 9 Chart Plotter
• Remaining helm instruments repaired w/guarantee vice replaced
• Windvane Transducer
• Raymarine Autopilot EV-1
• Raymarine Smart Pilot
• Anchor Light
• Bow Light
• Stern Light
• Fusion MS-AV755 entertainment system
• Fusion Remote MS-NRX300
• Water Maker Communication Cable
• 3 X Lifeline 4D Batteries
• 3 X Lifeline engine/generator group 24 batteries
• Starboard diesel electric feed pump
• Starboard oil pressure sender
• Starboard engine signal amplifier
• 2 X propeller rubber hubs
• 2 X engine harness and helm control panels
• 3 X Automatic Charging Relay (ACR)
• All LED courtesy Lights
• 2 X engine compartment utility lights
• Port forepeak overhead light
• Glomex digital antenna
• RogueWave WiFi booster
• Port bow gel-coat damage
• Generator Service
• 2 X Engine Service
• 2 X Sail Drive Service
• 2 X HVAC Service

The labour rate for all work was $100.

The boat was hauled to ensure there was no structural damage and to verify/service the sail drives. $715

4 lay days @ 125 = $500

Dockage 25 March – Aug 19 = $10,278

Electricity = $584

Systems verification & replacement/repair = $49,555

Total before taxes & fees = $61,632

Since we had insurance, this is all covered less our 2% hull deductible. In our case, it works out to $9300. Not an insignificant sum, but much better than being self-insured for such an incident. Our policy also had up to $10k in supplementary housing and meals, less a $1000 deductible, which almost reduces it to a net zero financial impact. There is obviously more to such an incident than straight dollars and cents, but this should be a major factor to consider when shopping for potential insurance companies.

In the end, we consider these deductibles as relatively minor expenses, and the cost of doing business. Since our lightning strike in March, we’ve heard stories about other cruisers who had their boats completely destroyed by lightning, and/or were struck on their 4th day of owning the boat.

In our case we did miss a month in the Abacos, (but we’ll get there in the future) and have had to wait most of the summer for the repairs to be complete. That was a nasty distraction from a more determined focus on other matters…but we’ll likely survive.

*BTW, the feature image is a still from this video on YouTube