[Clive]

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[MIchaelTArchangel]

If the sailboat is Kerry's Scaramouche, sink it!

[AnAmericanMother]

Yachters are so dependent on electronics now that a lightning strike can be an all-out disaster.

Lot of folks don't carry standard navigation gear any more and have no idea how to use a sextant or a chart, or even take a bearing.

And modern diesel engines have all the electronic ignition, metering, etc. and will be knocked out cold by a good jolt of lightning.

I read about a family back in the 80s who had a very near run thing while in the Agulhas Current on the SE coast of South Africa. Bad front, very bad seas, lightning strike, did keep their engine running but had to zig-zag back and forth between the breakers and the edge of the current until daylight. If they'd lost their engine they would never have been heard from again.

[ikka]

The vessel ran into trouble days ago after a lightning strike knocked out their global positioning system and led to an engineering problem, leaving them helpless when the weather deteriorated. The crew also lost its main sail.

If just the main sail was knocked out, but the mast was in place, they should have been just fine using either a smaller sail on the main mast or a jib up front. If the mast was gone, just a small jib would have sufficed to let them limp home.

And they definitely should have had something other than a GPS, either celestial navigation knowledge or just a compass and mechanical knotmeter (tow behind type) so that they could plot their position with dead reckoning.

[buccaneer81]

a Hercules out of Canadian Forces Base Greenwood was hovering

Now that I would like to see. I imagine Lockheed would be fascinated by this new capability as well.

Journalists...what a bunch of maroons.