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.
"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."
Then they are idiots! I've made runs up and down the East coast from NS to The Keys and the Bahamas and more under sail for over 40 years. We always have compasses (plural), sextant, books of logs, dividers, parallel rulers, a chronometer (and an old $3.00 Bullseye pocket watch)charts and tide and current tables and a battery powered rdf. We've seen some bad stuff but never needed rescuing because of equipment failure or otherwise (I wonder how they lost their mainsail?).
> Yachters are so dependent on electronics now that a lightning strike can be an all-out disaster.
I wouldn't float a rubber ducky in the bathtub by myself, but I am also very dependent on that navigation thingy in my car.